A Look into the Future
by nine miles to go
Summary: Set after ChrisCrossed. The girls cast a spell to see Chris' past and all that has been haunting Chris for years is revealedthings more horrible than they could imagine.
1. Fed Up

Disclaimer: GRRR...I DON'T OWN CHARMED. But I DO own little Prue, Colin, Mel, and my brain. But that's about it...grrr....  
  
"Chris, I know you've been taking an empath blocking potion ever since Bianca came. I can feel it, I can never get a reading off of you," insisted Phoebe. "We only want to help. Why can't you at least tell us a little bit about the future?"  
  
Chris glanced skeptically around the table at the Charmed Ones. If only they knew that they were his mother and aunts, if only they knew that he ached to tell them the truth...but he couldn't. He kept his face blank and confused.  
  
"I don't know what you're all talking about. Oh, darn—I forgot, there's a demon I'm supposed to—"  
  
"Don't you dare!" Paige shouted. She was too late though; Chris had already orbed out. "That's it, I'm sick of this whole 'future consequences' motto of his. I've got the spell. Do you guys remember it?"  
  
Piper and Phoebe nodded.  
  
"Desperate times, desperate measures," Piper groaned, taking out a slip of paper. They huddled together to read it.  
  
"To reveal what will come to pass,  
  
Let us see the lost one's past."  
  
.............................................................................................................  
  
"Fourteen and unders, get in the pool!" shouted a voice.  
  
The sisters stood, unseen, on a pool deck. They looked around: A lifeguard, the one that was shouting, had been calling to a group of teenagers over by the snack bar about ten feet away. It was obviously summer, and although they were invisible, they could feel the intensity of the 90 degree weather burning their backs.  
  
"C'mon you guys, practice is starting!"  
  
He got no response from the small crowd, now in hoots of laughter over some inside joke. The life guard checked his watch and sighed impatiently.  
  
"Uh, Phoebe, I don't see Chris anywhere," Piper commented skeptically. "Maybe the spell didn't work?"  
  
A whistle blew and they jumped up in surprise, covering their ears.  
  
"Colin, Mel, Prue, Chris, Bianca! Cut the chit-chat and get your butts in the pool, now! I'm not kidding this time!" the lifeguard nagged.  
  
A brown haired, tanned boy emerged from the group, grinning. Girls from all around the large pool were eyeing him, but he didn't seem to notice. "Sure, Coach," he laughed. "Sorry."  
  
"It's Chris!" Paige exclaimed. "Aw, he's so adorable!"  
  
"Yeah, but there's Bianca, too," Phoebe groaned, grimacing. "But who are those other kids?"  
  
The lifeguard looked straight at them with a smirk, but quickly diverted his attention to the teens now rapidly approaching with not-so-happy looks on their faces.  
  
"Okay, normal warm-up for today. 500 yard free, 300 choice, 100 kick. You get the picture. Now hurry up and get in—Halliwell, you'll pay for that!" he laughed, shaking off the water that Chris sprayed on him by jumping in.  
  
"Which Halliwell?" asked a red haired boy and two girls with blonde and brown hair simultaneously.  
  
"Oh, stop it with that eerie...thing you guys do."  
  
The three of them shrugged, giggling, and jumped in with Chris, managing to fully drench the lifeguard. He sputtered and coughed, then turned to Bianca expectantly. "Hey, you getting in my queen?" he asked, punching her playfully on the arm. "Your boyfriend's in, he's already gone 100 yards."  
  
Bianca gawked at him, shell-shocked. "EW...he's not..."  
  
"Everyone knows you have some major-crush on him. You nearly ripped your hair out when he was talking to that Jessica girl the other—aw, c'mon!" he yelled after Bianca splashed him as well. "I oughta get a raise with all the junk that I put up with you guys!"  
  
"Prue? Mel?" Piper inquired. "Those names...are they really all Halliwells? Prue and Mel and Colin, he called them all Halliwells—and Chris, too!" She clapped a hand to her mouth. "No...you don't think..."  
  
"He's RELATED to us?" Paige nearly shrieked.  
  
"Sure he is," replied the lifeguard.  
  
They all gasped in surprise—how could he hear them?  
  
"You're from the year 2004," he said as-a-matter-of-factly. "Welcome to 2019."  
  
"Dammit, how can you hear us? Phoebe exclaimed. "We made the spell so we couldn't be seen—are you a demon or something?"  
  
He chuckled softly. "I'm a whitelighter. Chris' whitelighter, to be exact, but he doesn't know that—nobody does. To every Halliwell, I'm just Brian the swim coach. Only whitelighters can see you, don't worry. So...I'll bet you're probably curious, huh?"  
  
"Well, yeah!" they all chimed in frustration.  
  
"Okay, then...first off, the kids in the far lane. Do you see them? The red haired boy and the blonde girl?" They nodded. "Well, their names are Colin and Mel, and they're Paige's twins."  
  
"I have—TWINS? Oh my god, I have TWINS!?" She jumped up and down in excitement. "I have twins! Oh, aren't they just so cute?" Paige was near hysterics.  
  
"Keep it down, most of them are half-whitelighter and their senses could kick in at any moment; especially Chris, since his dad's an elder and all. He's pretty strong with his powers—and athletics, as you can see—but he's good at hiding it. Be careful. You don't want to be discovered.  
  
"Well, I can tell you that Colin is the brainy rational one and that Mel follows Chris everywhere since they're both very adventurous and eager. Colin and Mel are both 11, and just like two halves of one whole!"  
  
"What about the others?" Phoebe asked tentatively.  
  
"Okay, back to the point. You see the other girl in the lane next to theirs'? That's Prue. She's 12, Phoebe's daughter, and definitely the artist and creative one of the bunch."  
  
"Oh my god, she's so beautiful," Phoebe marveled. "And she's just like Prue, too..."  
  
Brian laughed. "In more ways than one. Let's just say she can be a little...stubborn. She wasn't all too happy when Bianca moved in, but now they're the best of friends. Oh yeah—Bianca's over there in Chris' lane—she's thirteen."  
  
"We've already met her, she's a phoenix!" Piper growled. "Why would she move into OUR house? She's demonic—she's evil!"  
  
"No she's not," Brian explained quickly. "Okay, I know this may sound weird, but she's good. She's innocent...for now. You see, her mother, Lynn, died battling Piper about two years ago. Bianca, being young still, wasn't good or evil. So Piper took her in since no one else that adopted her would understand her powers and everything, you know? But, unfortunately, someday she will turn evil—and it'll be because of Wyatt using mind-control. But for now...well, she's got the hots for Chris."  
  
"About that—what's with this whole 'Chris being a Halliwell' charade? Chris is our whitelighter—well, half-whitelighter, that is—from the future, not a Halliwell! His last name is Perry!" Piper insisted.  
  
"No it isn't, that's his middle name. He didn't want you to find out, but now that you guys cast this spell, he can't prevent you from knowing. Piper, listen to me. Chris is your second-born. Wyatt's little brother. And right now...there's something funny going on...but we don't know what. I think that Wyatt—who's already evil, by the way, unbeknownst to your future selves—is trying to turn Chris. But he's doing it discreetly, trying to control Chris by getting to him in his sleep. Chris is powerful enough to fight it off, of course, but I don't know how long it'll last..." He sighed. "At least we know that he's good in the future if he's trying to save Wyatt in your time."  
  
"I'm done, Brian!" Chris yelled. "Who're you talking—" for a split second he turned pale, seeing the sisters, but shook it off. "Never mind."  
  
"Do another hundred yards while the others finish, alright?"  
  
Chris nodded slowly, still staring at the spot where he could've sworn he saw the sisters, then took off quickly.  
  
"See what I mean?" said Brian, running a perplexed hand through his sandy- colored hair. "Even this early, his powers—"  
  
"Wait—Chris is my SON?" Piper demanded.  
  
"Yeah, that's what I said."  
  
"Holy...something—all the things I've said to him...I'm his MOTHER..." she choked. "But why didn't he tell me?"  
  
"He doesn't want to upset you," Brian stated simply. "But that's a different time than this one, so I don't know too much about it. Wyatt, by the way, just got his driver's license. But you won't let him drive with anyone till he's at least seventeen—he's sixteen now, Chris is fourteen—so they're all stuck on skateboards and stuff."  
  
"This is so amazing...who'd have thought?" breathed Paige. "They're all so...unbelievable...wonderful..."  
  
"Yeah, if they aren't spraying you half to death, that is," Brian added. Then he grinned. "But wait—I guess I'm already dead, huh?"  
  
They all laughed nervously, staring out at the children. How could all of this happen in fifteen years?  
  
A/N: Yes, I know that Bianca's supposed to be older than Chris, but I changed it since that seems very weird. And the girls' husbands will be revealed in the next chappie, so don't go away!! R&R please, I appreciate it very much!!  
  
Oh yeah, and, just a warning—this'll kinda be a Chris-centered fic from here on in. Go Drew Fuller and all of his hotness! 


	2. Everyday Vanquish

Disclaimer: Me no own—for the lastest timeses!  
  
"Hey!" called another voice from behind them. An older blonde boy walked in. "Brian, I gotta take the munchkins home for an, um, dentist's appointment...yeah. You guys! Out, now!"  
  
"Yes!" said Colin and Bianca gratefully. The high-fived and jumped out, happy since they didn't like to swim as much as the others.  
  
"But—" Prue complained. "We just got in...why should we listen to you, scuz—I mean, cuz?"  
  
Wyatt gave her a stern look and she reluctantly climbed out, "accidentally" splashing him. She stuck out her tongue, then laughed as Wyatt ruffled her hair affectionately.  
  
"Don't be fooled," Brian warned. "That kid's evil. By the way, 'dentist's appointment' usually means 'demon attack,' in their language—you made it up, Phoebe."  
  
"Chris! Mel! I know you two can hear me in there...I know where you two live..." Wyatt threatened teasingly with a fist in the air. "Don't spray me, though. Save it for Brian, he likes it."  
  
Brian scoffed. "Yeah, sure...I love coming home soaking wet everyday...dude, what do you expect me to do for another hour until the ten and unders come? Coach invisible swimmers?"  
  
Wyatt shrugged. "You could get a decent tan." He turned his attention back his brother and cousin. "Last warning, you two, or I'll call mom—"  
  
"Coming, Wy—patience is a virtue," Chris laughed, finally getting out. Mel followed at his heels, headed for the locker rooms.  
  
"We need to be home in fifteen minutes, so hurry up in there and get changed," Wyatt commanded.  
  
There was a series of groans as they all grabbed their swim bags and separated.  
  
"This is so creepy, seeing Wyatt bigger and everything," said Piper. "He looks kinda like Leo, just like Chris looks kinda like me."  
  
"Yeah, but it's kind of freakish. Think about it—at least you know who their father is. We still haven't found that out...Brian? Got any info on our husbands?" Phoebe asked sweetly.  
  
"Uh, no...you'll have to figure that out for yourselves. We'll be there soon, we'll follow them home."  
  
"Why are we calling our kids for a vanquishing?" Paige asked skeptically, staring at Wyatt as he paced in the parking lot. "I mean, that does seem a little...I dunno...dangerous? They're just little kids..."  
  
"Don't be fooled by their size. Unlike you all, their powers weren't bound, so they've had well over a decade to develop them. They're all pretty powerful—"  
  
"What are their powers?" Phoebe wondered.  
  
"Well, Wyatt's got orbing, his shield, telekinesis, sensing, and a cross between Piper's and Leo's energy balls," Brian began.  
  
"Whoa..." said Piper.  
  
"Wy, get offa my board!" Chris laughed, emerging from the locker room and chasing after Wyatt as he rode wove through the parked cars on a skateboard. "I'll take your bike, I mean it!"  
  
Wyatt grinned mischievously and kicked the board backwards so it hit Chris hard in the leg. "Woops, sorry—it was an 'accident.'"  
  
"Ow..." Chris rubbed his shin then picked up his skateboard. "Freak..."  
  
"Loser," Wyatt laughed.  
  
"Idiot," Chris said back, grinning.  
  
"Moron—"  
  
"Boys, boys, boys," sighed Mel in mock impatience. "Play nice."  
  
"Aw, alright..." Chris groaned sarcastically. "Whatever you say..."  
  
Brian cleared his throat. "Anyways, Mel can orb, astral project, and sense. She's too young to have developed all of her powers yet. Colin can orb, use his shield, and throw fireballs. Speak of the devil, here he comes...don't worry, they can't see or hear me, either. I just made myself invisible."  
  
"Mel, tie up!" Colin called. The twins both tied the laces on their identical black skates with blue stripes and strapped on their blue helmets. Chris helped them fasten them and made sure that Bianca, Wyatt, and Prue had put on helmets too.  
  
Bianca and Prue rode scooters, Prue wearing a pink helmet and Bianca wearing purple; Mel and Colin used skates; Chris used a skateboard with a red helmet; and Wyatt rode a bike with a blue helmet. They all rode away on Wyatt's signal, leaving the sisters and Brian behind.  
  
"Prue can't orb, but she can levitate, turn invisible, and use empathy to a limited degree—that power's still growing. Bianca can summon, shimmer, and...well, I honestly don't know, since the elders don't track her like they do the others. And finally, Chris can orb, sense, use telekinesis, and freeze. But there's a pretty popular rumor Up There that Chris is in for a few more powers soon..."  
  
"He can FREEZE?" Piper demanded. "You mean there's MORE that he didn't tell us? Oh my god...why doesn't he tell us anything anymore?"  
  
"Dude, I hate to break up the little moment of shock, but are we gonna follow them or not?"  
  
Brian blushed. "Oh yeah, right—take my hands, we'll go forward in time about three minutes."  
  
ZZZZZIIIIIIIIIIPPPPP!  
  
"We're home!" Bianca called loudly as all six kids bustled in through the door after putting away their wheels and gear.  
  
"What demon are we vanquishing now?" Colin bellowed. "Mom, Dad, Uncle Jason, Uncle Richard, Aunt Phoebe, Aunt Piper!! Where are you?"  
  
"No WAY..." Paige croaked. "Richard? But I thought...I mean, really...he was all strange..." She shrugged. "Cool."  
  
"Jason!" Phoebe was squeaking. "Jason's MINE! Jason, Jason, Jason...Oh, I knew he'd always come back to me..."  
  
"But...what about Leo?" Piper whispered. She looked up at Brian. "Why didn't he call Leo?"  
  
"Cool your jets, kiddo," said Jason, coming down the stairs. He smiled at his daughter Prue. "I'm not sure about the whole demon-thingy. I'm mortal, remember? Anyways, I'm sure that they're handling—"  
  
BAM!!!  
  
"We're okay," Richard called from upstairs after a moment of silence. He came running down the stairs. "You guys just missed him...YUCK..." He was dripping from head to toe in green, oozing slime. "This is so gross, Paige—you three owe me big."  
  
"Aw, quit whining," future Paige teased. Her black hair was pulled up into a high ponytail that tickled her shoulders. "He 'protected' us from the slime," she explained, rolling her eyes. She turned to him and pecked his cheek. "Thanks, honey, for saving my outfit."  
  
"Aw, aren't you two so sweet," future Piper joked. Her hair was in a low, messy bun that bounced as she was coming down the stairs. She ruffled Wyatt's hair and gave Chris a smile, then headed into the kitchen. "I'm gonna make some dinner, alright?"  
  
Future Phoebe tumbled down the stairs noisily. "Gee, thanks for waiting!" She complained, jumping into Jason's arms and kissing him passionately.  
  
"EW, GET A ROOM!" all three boys complained while the girls giggled.  
  
Future Phoebe rolled her eyes. "You guys go do your homework while Piper makes dinner, alright? The front hall isn't big enough for all of us."  
  
Jingle, jingle.  
  
Eleven heads turned and looked up at the ceiling.  
  
Jingle, jingle.  
  
"What was that?" said future Piper, rushing in. "The elders...would Leo...?" she trailed off. "Nah..."  
  
Jingle, jingle.  
  
"They aren't calling any of us," Chris noted, expression twisted in confusion and curiosity. "Who else would they call?"  
  
Brian gasped. "They're calling...me? Oh, dammit—look, you guys just, uh, have fun. I'll be back as soon as I can, I swear...but BE CAREFUL. Whitelighter senses and all that stuff—erk, there's some disturbance in the atmosphere—"  
  
JINGLE, JINGLE.  
  
"I'm COMING!"  
  
The children all shrugged and dispersed, except for Chris, who lingered by the door. He stared apprehensively at the spot where Brian had just stood. "Could he be...?" He shook his head. "I must be...seeing things."  
  
"Oops," Phoebe whispered. "I hope that didn't change the timeline."  
  
Piper couldn't help but stare at Chris. Why didn't she see it before? Her worry-wart nature, always protecting the little ones down to adjusting helmet straps, her stubborn attitude, her get-up-and-go outlook on life...all of it was a part of him. Except for his eyes—he had Leo's eyes.  
  
"Well, I don't know about you two, but I'm gonna go check out my super twins," Paige said happily, jumping up. "Are you coming? C'mon, let's go!"  
  
A/N: Alright, there's not really a plot yet, but I swear that it gets intense soon...maybe in the next chappie, or the one after that...don't sue me! mwahahaha! 


	3. The Meeting

Phoebe tiptoed up the stairs, following her daughter quietly as if she might turn around and see her—even though that wasn't possible. Prue took graceful steps into what was once the guest room, opening the door to reveal light green wallpaper. There were three beds all in a row: one surrounded by boy band posters; another with trophies; and the last with photos of Halliwell smiles taped to the wall.  
  
Prue fished under her bed and retrieved a purple backpack, then pulled out a disposable camera gleefully. "I'm gonna get you..." she whispered with a smile. "3, 2,—"  
  
Bianca opened the door—FLASH—and tried to hide her face, a moment too late.  
  
"Ha ha! I got you!" Prue laughed victoriously. "And you said I'd never catch you off-guard..."  
  
"But—" Bianca protested.  
  
"Nuh-uh! I got you this time, no excuses!"  
  
"But wait..." said Bianca, face etched with worry. She dropped her black book- bag onto the boy-band bed. "Normally I would've felt your presence in here. I always can feel yours and Mel's presence from at least ten feet away before I come in...oh well, maybe it's an off-day or something."  
  
Prue shrugged. "But I still got you!"  
  
Bianca pretended to sigh in defeat. "Whatever shall I do?" she said dramatically, falling onto the bed. "My face shall be exposed upon a lowly photograph—I'm done for!"  
  
"Yup."  
  
Phoebe couldn't help but laugh. They were so happy, so good-natured. It was hard to believe Brian had even mentioned the two of them not getting along. They both joked for a half hour or so until the grandfather's clock chimed at six.  
  
"It's time." Bianca sprang up and grabbed Prue by the hand, whisking them through the door. "The meeting, we said to go to the bridge at six...Here, into the bathroom. He won't see us."  
  
"What about Aunt Piper?" Prue asked. "Won't she know we're gone?"  
  
"Chris handled that," Bianca replied, grinning. "You know how long he can freeze time. Better than Piper's power, since the clocks freeze, too. They won't even know we left for a minute."  
  
"Alright, shimmer me then," Prue gulped.  
  
Bianca shoved them both into the bathroom, Phoebe following close behind. The two of them shimmered away.  
  
"What...?" Phoebe gawked.  
  
They were gone.  
  
Meanwhile, Paige and Piper followed Mel, Chris, Wyatt, and Colin up the stairs and into what was once the study. The walls were white, but the beds were red for Wyatt, yellow for Colin, and red for Chris, as was shown when they all sat down. Mel sat next to Chris.  
  
"Dude, this is the boy's room. Out," Wyatt ordered Mel.  
  
"Nuh-uh. Just because you're a jerk doesn't mean I don't wanna hang out with Chris and Colin." She pulled her hair into a ponytail. "You can leave if you want to, though," she suggested, pointing to the door.  
  
"No, YOU can leave."  
  
"Go swallow a vanquishing potion!" Mel shot back in anger.  
  
"This is OUR room," Wyatt complained.  
  
Chris pulled Mel down to him and whispered something in her ear. Piper went up next to him and vaguely heard the words, "Just another half hour, then you can come back, I promise."  
  
She nodded curtly, then strode out of the room—with a shriek. "Wyatt! LET GO OF MY HAIR, YOU FREAK! DAMN TELEKI—"  
  
"Woops, accident," he lied.  
  
She slammed the door behind her.  
  
There was a significant pause as Wyatt fiddled with his shoes and Colin and Chris gave each other confused glances.  
  
"So, Chris...how's everything with Bianca?" Wyatt said mischievously, a glint in his eyes.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Oh, you know...your 'girlfriend'?" he snickered.  
  
"WHAT? Ew, that's so—WRONG—man, she's my sister! If I—if we—EW. You've gotta be kidding me!"  
  
"Denial," Colin sighed, shaking his head in mock sorrow. "The first sign of the terminal illness that some people like to call love."  
  
"Aw, stuff it!" Chris protested, throwing a pillow at him.  
  
Colin laughed, grabbing the pillow and hugging it. "Chris and Bianca sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G—"  
  
Chris tried to clap a hand to Colin's mouth but he threw up his shield, shocking Chris as he continued to sing.  
  
Piper and Paige were in fits of giggles now, watching their boys quarrel playfully. "It's so cute!" Paige exclaimed. "But I feel kinda bad about Mel...what was that all about, anyways? Are she and Wyatt like, enemies? I certainly hope not."  
  
"I heard Chris mentioning something about coming back in a half hour, so at least that means that he and Colin like being around her. But Wyatt...that was freaky."  
  
"So, who wants to play a round of pretend-we-did-our-homework-even-though- we-were-really-goofing-off? It's sure been a while since our teachers cut us some slack."  
  
"Hey Wy, in case you haven't noticed, we have FINAL EXAMS tomorrow. It's the last week of school—even high schoolers with a license get em, bro. I'm gonna study. You can make your own decisions..." Chris laughed.  
  
"I already have been studying the whole year," Colin said proudly.  
  
"Ha ha, go ahead and brag," Wyatt grumbled. "Guess I'll study, too."  
  
They sat in silence for a half hour, eyes scanning text and pages of textbooks flipping. They were so absorbed that not even all of their whitelighter senses put together could sense their past mothers in the corner of the room, whispering...  
  
"At least their good students!" Paige exclaimed. "Even if one is evil..."  
  
"Yeah, well, if Colin's so smart, either Richard was a good student or there was a genetic mutation, cuz he definitely didn't get it from you," Piper joked.  
  
Paige nudged her sister. "Hey, wonder where Phoebe is?"  
  
"Probably with the—"  
  
The clock downstairs chimed six.  
  
"Now!" Colin ordered.  
  
Chris flicked up his hand and froze Wyatt—and when he did, the clocks froze with him. Time had literally STOPPED!  
  
"Oh my god, he can't—that's not possible—can he...freeze time and space?"  
  
"Good one, Chris—now go downstairs and get the grown-ups. It's time for the meeting...I'll go get Mel, she'll be in the attic—MEL!"  
  
"Shut up, shut UP!" she whispered. "They're not frozen yet, you dummy—QUIET. Okay, Bianca said she'd shimmer Prue...is Chris done down there yet?"  
  
"Yup," Chris announced proudly, running back up the stairs. "That'll easily hold them for a good hour or two. Just enough time to...check on him."  
  
"Check on who?" asked Piper.  
  
"Huh? This isn't—where are they—OW!"  
  
"Oh, sorry—didn't mean to," Phoebe apologized after bumping into Paige. "Look, Prue and Bianca just shimmered away—something about—"  
  
"A meeting?" Piper finished. "Yeah, we heard."  
  
The three kids orbed away, leaving a shocked Phoebe, Paige, and Piper in their midst.  
  
"Where are they going?" asked Paige.  
  
"They said something about...a bridge? I don't know, I'm lost. Wait! They must be talking about the Golden Gate Bridge, there's no other bridge that they'd go to! Ooo, but I hate heights...Orb us, Paige, it's not as if we'll die if we fall..." Phoebe whimpered.  
  
They orbed away to see the five kids all sitting on the top of the pillars, talking to one another.  
  
"Everyone's here," Chris mumbled, the closest to them. "You guys, quiet down! We need to discuss this QUICKLY, before they all unfreeze!"  
  
They immediately silenced.  
  
"You guys, I can see Wyatt's turning even more evil. I can't fend him off much longer. He thinks I don't know that he's trying to turn me...but I do, he's trying to get me vulnerable in my sleep now! We have to do something, he's already gotten to Leo!"  
  
Piper gasped. "No...way...Leo...?"  
  
"Maybe the spell's worn off," Bianca offered.  
  
"I don't think so," Chris said softly. "The last time I called him, he tried to kill me..." He immediately wiped away his hurt expression and put up a bold front. "But it was the spell," he insisted, "not him."  
  
"Hey, after Wyatt kicked me out, I had this vague idea...how about we just vanquish him?" Mel asked hopefully.  
  
"Mel!" Chris burst. "Honestly!"  
  
"Well, SORRY..."  
  
"I think we should start the spell and the potion soon—oh, I got it! When Wyatt's at that stupid sleepover thing with those 'popular' kids he's always wanted to hang out with. He won't miss it, I know him. He's always wanted to hang out with David and Jackson. He'll be gone long enough for us to make the battle plans."  
  
Prue sighed. "Well, now that that's figured out..."  
  
"...we'll have to call your dad," Bianca finished.  
  
"Don't call him that. He's Wyatt's dad." Chris looked down. "Do we HAVE to?"  
  
Bianca nodded. "But you guys, everyone be ready to orb out if he gets violent. Chris, try to get through to him. Maybe there's some Leo left in him, you never know..." She squeezed Prue's hand, ready to shimmer.  
  
"Alright..." he said bracingly. "L-Leo?"  
  
There was no response.  
  
"Leo? Dad? Hello Up There..."  
  
Prue let out a fake, mangled shriek. "Aaaah, Uncle Leo, I'm dying!!" she screamed. "Oh, the pain, OH, the AGONY!! SAVE ME!!"  
  
Mel and Colin forced back laughs.  
  
Piper felt like she was going to be sick to her stomach. "Leo's a good person, a good person, he wouldn't...Wyatt wouldn't...Leo's not..."  
  
"We know, honey," Phoebe consoled her. "He's under a spell, remember? Besides, Chris came to the future to change this, and I'm confident that he can."  
  
"Prue, are you alright?" future Leo asked urgently. "Huh...? You're not hurt," he said bluntly.  
  
"Um...yeah...about that..."  
  
"Dad," Chris called. "It's me, Chris—are you gonna try to kill me again?"  
  
Leo's eyes flashed from longing to hatred, as if he was trying to fight it but gave up in the end. "That depends..." he hissed. "Did you set me up?"  
  
"ORB!" Chris demanded. "Get outta here, all of you!"  
  
They left Chris on the bridge to face Leo. Chris gulped. "Leo, it's a spell...Don't you remember me? Chris, your second son, Wyatt's little brother...Leo, please, remember..."  
  
"No, you're a liar!" Leo screamed, throwing an elder ball of electric energy. "Stop calling me, you're not my son! Wyatt's my only son—you're the enemy!" He threw another ball at Chris.  
  
Chris narrowly ducked the first, but the second hit him square-on in the stomach. He groaned in pain and collapsed, orbing back home.  
  
"Stop it, you bastard!" Piper screamed. "Get away from Chris!"  
  
To her surprise, Leo turned around to look at her. "Piper...I didn't know you were here. Did you change your hair? What's going on?"  
  
"ROT IN HELL," she said between clenched teeth as Paige orbed them both away.  
  
They fell in a heap in the attic, landing at someone's feet.  
  
"You've really done it now," Brian informed them gravely. "You've altered time."  
  
A/N—woops! thank you to those who informed me—in the last chapter, I accidentally had Colin call his father "Uncle Richard." my mistake! won't happen again! hey, I'm blonde, whaddaya expect? anyways, I SWEAR that there'll be a chris centered plot after this chapter...you'll see...MWHAHAHA!! 


	4. Bold Front

Disclaimer: Yada, yada, yada...I DON'T OWN CHARMED, NOR DO I OWN DREW FULLER...but I'm working on that.  
  
(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((()))))))))))))))))))))) ))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) (((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((()))))))))))))))))))))) )))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))  
  
"We've what?" Paige asked wearily, getting back up on her feet.  
  
"Altered the timeline!" Brian exclaimed. "Don't you realize what you've done, Piper? You ALTERED TIME!"  
  
"So? That's what Chris is doing in 2004 right now," Piper retorted, fuming. "That BASTARD excuse for a future Leo, ooo, I hope he SUFFERS..."  
  
"Piper, he changed the timeline for the greater good! You have no IDEA what you just did! By talking to Leo, who KNOWS what could've happened—in the normal timeline, Leo never hurt Chris in front of Piper to keep their relationship together...Now that Leo thinks the Piper in THIS time has seen him, he might not come back, or something else could happen!"  
  
"He'd BETTER not come back!" Piper shrieked, "Cuz when I'M THROUGH WITH HIM, HE WON'T BE ABLE TO—"  
  
"Piper, GET IT TOGETHER—HE'S UNDER A SPELL!"  
  
They both gave each other fixed, hard glares for a moment or two when they hard an agonized cry from down the stairs.  
  
"Chris," Piper breathed. "Go heal him, Brian!"  
  
Jingle, jingle.  
  
"NO!" Brian protested, looking Up There in hostility. "You CAN'T! He needs me!"  
  
JINGLE, JINGLE.  
  
He grabbed Piper's hand, near tears. "They want me to bring you, Piper...you're going to have a trial with the elders. I only hope that Chris..." he trailed off, eyes darting down the stairs one last time before orbing away.  
  
(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((()))))))))))))))))))))) ))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) (((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((()))))))))))))))))))))) )))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))  
  
BACK IN 2004...  
  
"Argh," Chris moaned, clutching at his stomach. He felt as if something like an energy ball had hit him at full force, and he collapsed by the altar where the Book of Shadows lay. The pain subsided about five minutes later, and he got to his feet to survey the damage.  
  
Now, this was odd; how did he get a huge scar on his stomach?  
  
He disregarded it and returned to the Book. Something had to explain the sisters' disappearance—ANYTHING.  
  
All of a sudden the book began flipping to a page in the back of the book, revealing a spell in Phoebe's handwriting. Chris read through it thoughtfully, then realized what it meant.  
  
"DAMN THEM!"  
  
(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((()))))))))))))))))))))) ))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) (((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((()))))))))))))))))))))) )))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))  
  
Phoebe and Paige gawked at the ground where Piper just stood. "Oh no..." Paige gasped. "What have we done? What if we just killed Chris?"  
  
"No, we can't have," Phoebe insisted, eyes brimming with tears. "We can't have..."  
  
"CHRIS!" Bianca's scream could be heard up the stairs. She shimmered into the attic with his limp form, followed closely behind by the other three younger kids. She was sobbing hysterically and barking orders through her tears. "Prue and Mel, check the Book, Colin, got over here, help me look for a potion..."  
  
Chris moaned and rolled over, revealing a large wound that bled freely through his shirt and dripped onto the floor.  
  
Bianca glanced back at him. "He's dying," she whispered. "Chris, hold on...Oh Wyatt, I'll KILL you..."  
  
Chris shuddered and blacked out.  
  
That's when Bianca went nuts in rage. "YOU STUPID ASS WHITELIGHTERS UP THERE—I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME! ORB YOURSELVES DOWN HERE THIS INSTANT! DO YOU REALLY WANT ANOTHER WITCH TO DIE!?"  
  
No one came, and she crumbled to the floor by Chris, sobbing. "He's going to die...if he dies, we'll all die—he's our last hope to save Wyatt! And...I love him."  
  
Just then three figures orbed in, responding to the call; Andy Trudeau, Prue Halliwell, and Samuel Matthews.  
  
"Dad?" Paige gasped.  
  
Phoebe took a step back. "Andy?"  
  
They both exchanged looks, then turned to their past sister. "PRUE?"  
  
Whitelighter Prue bent down and healed Chris hurriedly. "Chris, can you hear me?" she said after a while. The wound was healing slowly but not fully. "Damn it, I can't deflect all of the elder magic," she cursed. "Chris?"  
  
"Yeah?" he said weakly, sitting back up. He was pale and shaking. "What...? Leo. What happened? Where's Leo?"  
  
"He's gone," Andy assured him. "You're safe."  
  
"Is everyone okay now?" Sam asked, looking at the group with concern.  
  
"No, I still can't heal him all the way," Prue complained. "It'll only last for a while."  
  
"I'm okay," said Chris, unsteadily getting up to his feet and sitting on the couch. "You guys...that was too dangerous. We're not doing it again, it put you all in danger. What if we lost one of you?"  
  
"Chris, we almost lost you!" Mel exclaimed.  
  
"That's not what matters," he said forcefully. "What matters is that you guys are safe. I'm supposed to protect you, and I did a pretty damn bad job of it back there."  
  
"No, Chris, that's our job," said Prue, lost for words. How could one kid try to take the weight of all of their lives on his shoulders?  
  
"You're our Aunt!" little Prue said excitedly, barely able to contain her glee. "I've seen all of your pictures, I take some myself—but they're not as good as yours!"  
  
Prue laughed. "So your Phoebe's daughter? I'm sure your photos are a whole lot better than mine...Uh-oh."  
  
"What?" asked Colin.  
  
JINGLE, JINGLE.  
  
"I've managed to stop the bleeding, but you're still hurt, Chris. Be careful, and call for us if anything goes wrong. We're always listening, after all." She gave him a sad gaze. "And remember...you're not alone."  
  
All three of them winked at Paige and Phoebe before orbing Up There to respond to the elders' call.  
  
The five children stared in silence for a moment, trying to recollect and analyze exactly what had just happened. Chris interrupted the quiet.  
  
"I'd better go unfreeze everyone," he announced, slowly getting up and wincing. He cast his face in shadow so that they couldn't see he was in pain. "I'm hungry. Who else wants noodles?"  
  
They all headed down the stairs, but Chris stayed behind.  
  
"Chris...aren't you coming?" asked Bianca, worried.  
  
"Yeah, sure," he responded with a somewhat forced smile. "Just give me a minute—I, uh, wanna think."  
  
"Okay," she said hesitantly before following the others.  
  
Once he was sure she was gone, Chris slowly rose and clutched his side. "Damn you...Wyatt and Leo..." he gasped, limping towards the door and out of the attic. Phoebe and Paige followed, and, to their surprise, Chris had managed to regain his composure and pretend he was fine by the time he got down into the kitchen.  
  
"Wyatt! Ready for your sleepover?" future Piper called.  
  
"Yeah, coming!" Wyatt responded, carrying his pack and bounding down the stairs.  
  
Chris walked down the stairs after him, and future Piper gave him a double- take. "Honey, are okay? You don't look so good."  
  
"I'm fine, Mom," Chris said casually, "why would you think there was something wrong? Do I have something on my face?"  
  
"Oooh, he's good," Paige commented.  
  
"Yeah," said Phoebe with disdain, "a little too good. Even my empath power couldn't pick up that lie."  
  
"No, it's just...I don't know, you look a little sick."  
  
Chris shrugged. "I feel fine. What's for dinner?"  
  
Future Piper went up and put a hand on his forehead. "Chris, you're burning up! Go straight back upstairs and into your room, you're sick. Why did you lie to me?"  
  
"I didn't!" he protested. "I feel fine, honestly!"  
  
But she wouldn't take no for an answer and dragged him into the room. She pushed him into bed, mumbling something about being too stubborn for his own good. "You get some rest, I'll bring you dinner."  
  
"But—"  
  
"BUT NOTHING."  
  
Chris gave up and laid back onto the pillow, closing his eyes and falling asleep in an instant. In his peaceful dream state, he didn't even notice Wyatt come in quietly.  
  
"Chris, you know you shouldn't fight it," he chuckled softly, sprinkling dust over Chris' face. The sleeping boy's expression changed to one of anger, sadness, and desperation—but more than anything, fear.  
  
"It'll only make it worse."  
  
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Phoebe and Paige stood at the doorway to Chris' room, watching Colin came in. Colin saw Chris thrashing back and forth wildly in his slumber and immediately woke up him up.  
  
Chris sprang into a sitting position in cold sweat, then winced and groaned for a moment when he realized he was still wounded.  
  
"The potion," Colin whispered. "The battle plan. We're not doing it tonight, you're hurt. Bianca said we'd try for next week..."  
  
"No, we're doing it tonight. Nothing's changed. I'm fine. Just let me go get everyone."  
  
"But Bianca said..."  
  
"Who's the one leading us all?" Chris snapped in impatience.  
  
"You are," Colin mumbled. "But Chris..."  
  
"I'm in charge, not Bianca. I'll decide whether or not we're doing it tonight and I say we are." He got up and headed towards the girls' room, making sure to freeze the rooms of the sisters' on his way.  
  
"This looks bad," said Paige.  
  
Chris whipped around and stared at Paige, horror-struck. "Aunt Pai..." he trailed off, then shook his head. "Seeing things."  
  
"Don't talk from now on, he's alert," warned Phoebe in a hushed tone. "It was alright before, when they were distracted, but we'd better lay low now."  
  
Paige nodded her agreement and they tiptoed quietly behind Chris and Colin.  
  
"Chris, we can't!" Bianca nearly shrieked when he came in. "You're in no condition to walk into this room, let alone devise a plan to fight Wyatt—"  
  
"Bianca, it's not like we're really fighting him tonight! It's just a spell and potion and battle plan. Think of it this way: we're staying up late for a three part book report. I'll do the plan, Mel and Prue work on the spell, and Bianca and Colin make the potion."  
  
Nobody budged.  
  
"Did anyone hear me? Get a move on!"  
  
They all orbed and shimmered up to the attic. Chris closed his eyes, trying to orb, but couldn't, so he took the stairway.  
  
He was halfway up when he stopped to rest, clutching his side and gasping for breath. "This," he croaked quietly, "is going to be one HELL of a night."  
  
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A/N—Hope you all liked it!! Go Drew Fuller! 


	5. Battle Plans

Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed and I'm in so much grief over this fact that I can hardly accept it, let alone write it on fanfic and display my humiliation to the world!!  
  
Hey, peeps—thanks for all the great reviews!! Everybody's so nice, I totally appreciate it!  
  
(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((()))))))))))))))))))))) ))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) (((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((()))))))))))))))))))))) )))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))  
  
Once he finally got up to the attic, he found everyone busy at work. Bianca and Colin stood by the shelves, surveying the potion ingredients. Mel and Prue were busy at work with their rhyming dictionary at the couch, pencil and paper in hand.  
  
"Should we try these ingredients? One's innocence and the other is the symbol of opposites..."  
  
"No, those two would react in an explosion..."  
  
"What rhymes with bastard?"  
  
"Mel, stop that..."  
  
Chris smiled slightly before grabbing a pen and pencil himself and sitting on the couch by Mel and Prue. He sketched a faint outline of their bedroom, making different marks for doors, windows, and furniture. He drew a red dot for Wyatt and blue, yellow, pink, purple, and green dots for himself, Colin, Prue, Bianca, and Mel. Now, he'd get on with the plan...  
  
They all spoke in hushed whispers in the urgency of the event for a good four hours (though time had been stopped, thanks to Chris) before everyone was finished. Chris set down the plan, ten vials of five different potions were ready for test runs, and three different spells were folded neatly onto a stack.  
  
"Everyone finished?" asked Chris, standing back up from his stationary position. He cringed and Phoebe almost held out to try and balance him, then remember that they were at risk of being caught. Luckily Chris righted himself before anyone noticed.  
  
"Yup," came a chorus of replies.  
  
"Okay...let's go over everything, starting with the spells."  
  
"Alright-y then!" Mel exclaimed. "The second one?"  
  
Prue nodded and they unfolded one of the spells.  
  
"Hear my words, hear my cry  
  
Heed the hope within my mind,  
  
Change the killer, turn him back  
  
To the lighter side in his past."  
  
They finished the spell with proud, eager expressions on their faces. Chris smiled weakly and nodded his approval towards the spell (a/n—yes, it's the beginning of the time travel spell, but I have my REASONS....).  
  
"Okay, we have the potions. Bianca just finished mixing them," Colin explained. "Now we just have to test them."  
  
"Okay, I got Wyatt's coat," said Bianca, placing it on the attic floor. She threw the first potion—BAM!!  
  
"Okay, um, no..." Bianca decided, a bit frazzled. "We don't wanna vanquish him or anything."  
  
"Next one." Colin handed her a blood red potion this time and she threw it.  
  
The jacket burst into flames and thinking fast, Chris used telekinesis to dump Prue's glass of water on it to put it out. "Phew, that was close," Chris sighed. "Try the next one..."  
  
"Sure." Bianca threw a light-blue one with a foggy base. It hissed at contact with the jacket, dissolving into the fabric. Everyone grinned.  
  
"That'll work, good job," Chris praised. "Now, here's the plan..."  
  
He laid out the paper he'd been using and explained their different positions. "Here's Wyatt, by the bed in red marker. Prue and Bianca, you're the purple and pink dots in the back by the door, farthest from him. Prue, stay invisible unless he comes near you, and if you can control it, levitate and fight him. Bianca, use your powers against Wyatt if he gives us trouble and be ready to shimmer out with Prue if anything goes wrong. Colin, you're up in front with me— you use fireballs to protect the girls if anything goes wrong. I'll be there to freeze him if something happens, but remember, we can only use the spell and potion if he's unfrozen. Mel, you're going to be at the door. I want you to astral project behind him and distract him while we're counteracting his evil." He sighed. "Everybody got that? Tomorrow at dusk, we strike."  
  
"Sure," said Bianca. She turned to the younger three. "You all head down to bed, it's pretty late—even if it's technically still nine o'clock."  
  
With great, big yawns, they departed sleepily down to their respective bedrooms.  
  
Chris rubbed his eyes, trying not to fall asleep. Phoebe was getting empathy vibes off of him in his state.  
  
"He's in pain," she complained quietly. "And he's angry, a little scared and confused, too."  
  
"This isn't our timeline, we can't help," Paige tried to rationalize.  
  
"We were the ones that did this! Leo wouldn't be avoiding Piper if she hadn't..."  
  
"Chris, are you okay?" asked Bianca, putting a hand on his shoulder.  
  
His face was pale and sweaty, but he nodded. "Sure, I'm coming down the stairs in a minute. Why don't you go put them all to bed?" he suggested. "You know how they'll stay up..."  
  
"Good idea." She gave him one last look of uncertainty before leaving to get the tweens.  
  
Chris tried to walk but gasped in pain, clutching at his side again. He fell to his knees in silence, trying to call out for help, but he only collapsed and fell unconscious.  
  
"Chris!" Phoebe exclaimed.  
  
"What if we've killed him?" Paige screamed hysterically. "Piper had to leave with Brian, now his whitelighter is busy and no one can heal him! What are we gonna do!?"  
  
"We can't do anything," Phoebe choked, repeating Paige's previous words.  
  
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A/N—I made the world's evilest cliffhanger!! Supposedly, that is...who wants to CHALLENGE me? Just not with a Chris story, cuz cliffies on Chris stories drive me up the wall...just like I'm probably driving all of you guys up the wall...MWAHAHAH!  
  
Hey, it's my 14th b-day in two weeks! I'm doing a Charmed theme...must get downloads off of internet hugs pic of Drew Fuller possessively MINE!! 


	6. Seeing Double

Disclaimer: all the norm. I DON'T OWN DREW FULLER.  
  
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"Wait, there is something we can do," Paige muttered, getting up from Chris' side quickly. "The other children...not counting Prue and Bianca, their all half-whitelighters. And my future self..."  
  
"...is a half-whitelighter, too!" Phoebe finished. "Go alert her, they'll be unfrozen since Chris is out of it. Go, hurry!"  
  
Paige nodded and made a dash for her old room. To her sick pleasure, she saw herself and Richard passionately making out in bed. She hated to disturb them, but she knew what she had to do. She sucked in as much air as she could, shouting at the top of her lungs,  
  
"PAIGE MATTHEWS! WAKE THE HELL UP AND PUT ON YOUR CLOTHES!"  
  
Future Paige shrieked and shot up, wrapped in blankets.  
  
"Honey, what's wrong?" Richard asked with a concerned look. He stared at the same spot future Paige was staring at with a confused expression. Little did he know what his wife was seeing.  
  
"Who the hell are you?" she demanded.  
  
"I'm yourself from the past, you have to believe me," Paige said to herself desperately. "We're here on a spell, we were curious about...it's too complicated to explain, but please, we've altered time and Chris is dying!"  
  
Future Paige jumped out of bed. "Where is he? What's happened?"  
  
"The attic, wake up Piper and Phoebe—we don't have much time!"  
  
They tore out of the room, leaving behind a bewildered Richard.  
  
(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((()))))))))))))))))))))) ))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) (((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((()))))))))))))))))))))) )))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))  
  
"Hold on, Chris, hold on," Phoebe pleaded. "Paige is coming, you'll be alright..."  
  
His breathing was short and fast and the wound at his side reopened, bleeding freely. Phoebe looked up, calling "Brian! Prue! Andy! Sam!" as loudly as she could.  
  
In an instant, Brian orbed down with Piper. "What's going—" He stopped short, horror-struck at Chris' mangled form. "I knew something like this would happen! Damn it..." He bent down to heal Chris. "He's still alive..."  
  
Just then, future Piper, Phoebe and Paige flung the door open only to see Brian hovering over Chris.  
  
"Chris!" Piper screamed. "Chris, honey, oh my god! You're hurt!"  
  
The aunts, giving Brian a puzzled look, ran up to Chris as well.  
  
"Brian?" future Paige asked. "Brian the SWIM COACH? Geez, I never would've guessed that Brian would be...a whitelighter. How come you never told us?"  
  
"I couldn't, I was forbidden...Damn it to hell, it's not working! I can't heal him!"  
  
"Do something!" future and past Piper cried out at the same time, "Anything!"  
  
"It's just like Prue, I can only temporarily stop the bleeding...There is only one elder powerful enough to have done this," he said glumly. "Piper...your husband, Leo, is under a spell. He's trying to kill Chris—that's how this happened. I'm really sorry."  
  
"Leo? How DARE you accuse my husband of doing this to Chris! Leo wouldn't, he's a pacifist, he loves Chris just like he loves Wyatt. You're lying!"  
  
"Brian, do something to make them see us," begged past Piper.  
  
Brian sighed. "Only because it's necessary," he said, flicking his hand and uncloaking them from the future world.  
  
"Holy SHIT," future Phoebe exclaimed. "You're me and—and Piper and Paige—oh my god! Where'd you come from?"  
  
"The year 2004," past Paige responded. "In our time, 22-year-old Chris has come back to the past from 2026 to warn us about Wyatt turning evil. Wyatt's ALREADY evil, right now! We're here because we were curious about what Chris was hiding—when we first got to this time, we didn't even know that Chris was Piper's son. We thought he might just be one of Wyatt's little friends or something, not his BROTHER. So we followed them everywhere and found out..."  
  
"...that my future husband and older son are bastards," past Piper finished. "You see, Wyatt's evil, he has been for a while. He's haunting Chris in his sleep, pressuring him to turn with him, and his latest move is putting a spell on Leo. Leo thinks that Chris is the enemy. He tried to kill him! That's why he's dying..."  
  
"My son is NOT dying," future Piper sobbed in denial. "Chris, say something..."  
  
"It's not working. The only one that can heal him is Leo, but the spell hasn't lifted. We can't call him or he'll be killed."  
  
"You guys...are our PAST selves?" future Phoebe exclaimed.  
  
The three of them nodded, then returned their attention to Chris. His eyes were still closed, but he seemed aware of his surroundings. "Mom?" he asked shakily.  
  
"I'm right here," both Pipers soothed. Their eyes immediately met, flashing in anger.  
  
A light smile played on Chris' lips. "How many of you are there?"  
  
"Only two," said both Phoebes, exchanging smiles of relief, "two of all of us."  
  
"What...?"  
  
"Don't confuse him, he just barely evaded death," Brian scolded. "The elders want me. I'm going to have to explain the situation to them...somebody take him to his room, don't let him do anything, he's too weak."  
  
With his final warning, he orbed Up There.  
  
Both Pipers leaned in to lift Chris but future Piper nudged her past self away. "This is MY son," she said with the hostility rising in her voice. "You can wait until he exists in your timeline."  
  
"But he does! Just...he's twenty-two and hard as stone," said past Piper, trying not to cry. "I wish he'd told us about all this."  
  
"Speaking of Chris," past Paige mentioned, "I wonder how he is right now."  
  
(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((()))))))))))))))))))))) ))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) (((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((()))))))))))))))))))))) )))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))  
  
BACK IN 2004...THINGS NOT LOOKING SO GOOD FOR OUR LOVABLE WHITELIGHTER...  
  
"Help..." Chris moaned, doubled-over in pain. It blinded him...whatever they were changing was putting him through immeasurable agony...  
  
"Dad..."  
  
'Stupid dolt!' he thought immediately, 'he's LEO now.'  
  
"LEO..."  
  
Leo orbed in on command. "Chris? Chris, what's wrong!?" He tried to heal him but nothing happened. Something was wrong with him, he knew it—there was a huge wound at his side.  
  
"Chris, you're dying...and I can't stop it..." Leo moaned.  
  
Chris thought to himself, 'He's right. I'm gonna die and nobody that I care about will ever know what happened to me...Is this how it'll end?' 


	7. The Spellbook

Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed.  
  
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Future Piper walked carefully down the stairs, cradling Chris in her arms. How could this happen? Why didn't she notice?  
  
"What I don't understand..." future Paige whispered, "is that they just made ten potions, three spells, AND a battle plan in two seconds. How can they do that so fast?"  
  
"Don't you know?" said past Piper. "Chris can literally freeze time—make it stop EVERYWHERE, so nobody noticed."  
  
"He never told me that..." future Piper choked.  
  
"What's going on?" Colin demanded once they entered the room. "What happened to Chris?" He rushed over to them. "Bianca warned him...but he didn't listen..."  
  
"Warned him of what?" asked future Phoebe.  
  
Colin shook his head, looking up at them fearfully, and ran to the girls' room as fast as he could.  
  
"Wait, Col—" future Paige called after her son. "We know about Leo and Wyatt. We want to help, you can tell us what happened. There's a way...to turn him back to the light, isn't there?" she asked past Phoebe.  
  
Phoebe shook her head. "You're not supposed to change this, I don't think. I mean, from the looks of it, it's Chris' destiny to change everything...perhaps not now, but later. In about eight years, he'll come to the past, where he is in our time right now. In his time, none of this happened...because in his time, Piper wouldn't be afraid to call Leo to save his son. Now we can't call Leo but Leo knows that Piper knows he hates Chris, and...it's complicated, but trust me, they need to deal with Wyatt on their own." She gave them all a sad look. "Whatever the cost."  
  
"Chris!" Bianca gasped, shimmering into the room.  
  
Mel, Prue, and Colin orbed in after her.  
  
"Did Leo—" Mel was about to ask, but Prue clamped a hand to her mouth.  
  
"It's alright...they know," Colin said, hesitantly walking towards past Paige. "What the hell?"  
  
"Look, little guy—I may not be your mother in this time, but I know for a fact that you're not allowed to use that kind of language." Past Paige patted him affectionately on the head, but he squirmed away.  
  
"So...you're from the past?" asked Prue. "This day...just gets more and more confusing by the second."  
  
"You're telling me!" the three future sisters said sarcastically in unison.  
  
"How did this happen?" Bianca demanded. "Chris...I told you...He's so damn stubborn! Why the hell couldn't he just listen when I told him to delay the meeting!? Now he's hurt...I knew something like this would happen..."  
  
"There was no avoiding it," past Piper explained, "Leo's magic would've gotten to him anyway."  
  
"Now, could anyone explain Chris' little freezing power to me?" future Piper said suspiciously, looming over the four kids. "You know...the one that stops time?"  
  
She only got a chorus of "Um..." from them all. Bianca stared at the floor by Chris' bed. The twins started to fidget with their fingers. Prue tried to give them all her most innocent look, but the expression turned from innocence to guilt to tears.  
  
"He didn't want to tell you so we could do it right!" she exclaimed, stamping a foot down. "It was the only way to get past you guys! We had to save Wyatt from—"  
  
"From being evil?" future Piper asked. "We know. But there's nothing we can do. You guys should go ahead with your plan as soon as Chris recovers."  
  
"Yeah?" Bianca shot nastily. "And when it THAT supposed to happen? Elder- boy up there is sitting on his ass watching Chris die and us unable to do anything about it!" And then, before anyone could stop her, she shrieked, "WYATT HALLIWELL, GET THE HELL DOWN HERE THIS INSTANT!"  
  
Wyatt orbed in groggily, rubbing his eyes. "What's up?" He turned to see all of the faces staring back at him. "Why is everyone looking at me like that? Why are we all in our room?"  
  
"You...you BASTARD..." Bianca raged. "You KNEW this would happen, you KNEW it!" Then she grinned. "You knew Leo wouldn't come down to heal Chris...but I know he'll come down for this." She calmly walked up to Wyatt and kicked him in the gut, twisting his arm around until there were several cracking noises.  
  
"Bianca!" both Pipers exclaimed, too late to restrain her.  
  
"He'll come," she choked. "He has to come. Colin, you know what to do. But first..." She opened the drawer of Chris' nightstand and took out a notebook labeled, "Spells."  
  
"This is Chris' mini Book of Shadows I guess; he fills it with spells," she explained. "He only showed it to me, and inside of it..." She flipped through a few pages. "Ah, here it is...he wrote a spell that might work on Leo. He didn't want to try it in case it backfired, but...we have no choice. Now, Colin."  
  
Colin nodded, and with a voice eerily identical to Wyatt's, he screamed, "Dad, help! Demon!"  
  
Leo orbed down in a millisecond to see Wyatt on the floor, nursing his arm and whimpering. He healed him at once.  
  
"Baby," Mel sniggered.  
  
When he was finished, Leo got to his feet—and saw the two Pipers, Paiges, and Phoebes. "Ah, I see that Brian's uncloaked you...The elders have heard a lot about you since Piper's little trial."  
  
"HEAL CHRIS!" future Piper demanded. "He's our son!"  
  
"No he isn't, he's dangerous," said Leo, panic apparent in his voice. "Wyatt..." with a flick of his hand, he orbed Wyatt away to "safety," then turned back to Piper. "He wants to kill Wyatt, he's a fake—not our son!"  
  
"The spell, Bianca," past Paige instructed.  
  
She nodded.  
  
"Take away the blind one's mask,  
  
Make the father remember his task,  
  
Bring back memories from long ago,  
  
So he will understand friend from foe."  
  
Something in Leo snapped back to life. His glazed eyes turned flashed and alert, and he flexed his hands. "I can control it now..." he whispered in awe. "Where am I? What's—Chris!"  
  
(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((()))))))))))))))))))))) ))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) (((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((()))))))))))))))))))))) )))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))  
  
Leo paced in the attic, stopping every now and then to stare back at Chris to make sure he was still alive. Why wouldn't he heal? The last time this happened, it was Bianca's fault—but Bianca was, without a doubt, dead.  
  
So who could've done this to him?  
  
He tried to sense for the sisters, thinking that maybe they could help. To his horror, he couldn't sense them anywhere. They were gone!  
  
Chris suddenly sat up, panting. "Damn, finally, it stopped...What the hell was that?"  
  
(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((()))))))))))))))))))))) ))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) (((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((()))))))))))))))))))))) )))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))  
  
A/N—There will be more! Just maybe not today, I have three other siblings hovering over me for comp possession like hungry wolverines...erk, it bit me! Little sisters (and older brothers, for that matter) have big fangs!!  
  
Thanks for all the nice reviews! I'd respond to them, but I don't have much time, considering my sis is practically drooling on the keyboard (she's purplehorse100, by the way! annoy her for me!).  
  
This story is nowhere near over! I will have more Chris-centered mini plots in here if it KILLS me!! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!! 


	8. Never Here

DiScLaImEr: I don't own Charmed, nor do I own Drew. It's NOT FAIR!!  
  
Charmed Melinda Halliwell—Thank you for all your great (and funny!) reviews! I always look forward to them!! I think we agree on a lot of things...like the EVILNESS in the Halliwyatt line...MWAHAHA! Thanks for reviewing! And bringing the medical supplies (cough cough) and partying (cough again), and Drew Fuller songs and dances! Damn, the words are still stuck in my head, lol!  
  
Nemesis' Arrow: Aren't sibs annoying!? Finally, somebody understands the cruelty and annoyance! Lol, hope your having fun with your brother...my brother, by the way, is watching me type this right now and let's just say that his reaction isn't so nice!!  
  
xjelliepotatoex—Well, this is TECHNICALLY not gonna happen to Piper and Leo since Chris is gonna change it in 2004. It's just what COULD happen if Chris didn't change it, or, in Chris' past, what DID happen. Okay, it's complicated, but let me assure you that the Piper and Leo in 2004 will always be a happily ever after couple!!  
  
Bubblz—Thanks! I base most of my characters on my annoying sibs, so that's where the sarcasm comes from. My little sister did tell me to go swallow a vanquishing potion once after she read my character saying it in this story!! (I only hope that she doesn't do that in public!!).  
  
Piper xox Leo: Please don't scream!! (puts on earmuffs) Okay, now you can scream!! Lol, thanks for the reviews!  
  
Random insane person: Do you think that thirteen cents can buy another cookie? I like cookies!! Lol, thanks for all of your positive comments and yummy imaginary baked goods!  
  
Nautica7mk—Yes, life CAN get more complicated! MWAHAHA! (Read the cliffie below and see the next chapter once I update it and you'll know why).  
  
Cat—I'm updating as soon as I can! (pants, gasps for air) I luv writing this fic!! I'm addicted to the keyboard now!  
  
BlueRMillie—Your welcome! I liked your story since it's one of the few that haven't been done before.  
  
AK8—Okay, I've updated!! Are you still alive? I sure hope so! Lol.  
  
X3—Chris won't die...YET...MWAHAHA!! The ending will be happy, though...I just haven't decided how to end it because there's gonna be a lot more in this fic!  
  
ChArMeDcRaZiChIcK—Aw, why not? You can download pics of the net and tape 'em on your wall! That's what I'm doing, since it's gonna be a family party and my two little sisters and my mom and I are obsessed with Charmed and they won't mind it for an hour or so. (Gee, I feel bad for my brother and dad...all the girls ever talk about in this house is Charmed...; ) )  
  
michael—If I've made a difference in one person's life with my evil cliffies, then it's worth it! Lol.  
  
violet—Glad you like it! ; )  
  
I just responded to reviews from the sixth and seventh chappies cuz I need to give the comp back to my bro, so sorry if I skipped you!  
  
Okay, here's da story:  
  
"So...this entire time I've been under a spell?" Leo asked slowly. He'd just endured a very long and complicated explanation as to why there were twins of the sisters, including telling that Chris in the future would be their whitelighter and that Wyatt was currently evil. "It makes sense; whenever I was around Chris, I just felt hate that I couldn't rationalize. I'm so sorry, buddy," he apologized with tears in his eyes. "Please forgive me."  
  
Chris stared down at his hands, not able to look at Leo's face. "It wasn't your fault, it was Wyatt's." He turned to past Piper. "Am I really some neurotic freak in your time?" he asked with a grin.  
  
"Aw, you haven't changed that much," past Paige joked.  
  
"I find this situation a bit amusing," said future Phoebe. "I mean, honestly—we're in the future and you're in the past, but you're gonna see Chris at twenty-two before we will. Doesn't that seem a little—I dunno—strange?"  
  
"Hey, where did you orb Wyatt, anyway?" asked Bianca.  
  
"Oh, I almost forgot—he's up at the Magic School nursery...should I go get him? I mean, why don't we just pretend that none of this ever happened and we don't suspect him?"  
  
"We can do that, but we're still holding onto every intent to try and turn him back," Chris decided firmly. He tried to get up but Leo held him back down.  
  
"Not yet. Wait a little bit, it may take a while for you to recover."  
  
Chris' face fell but he was obviously happy that his father had been changed.  
  
"Well, we'd better all go to bed," said future Paige, yawning.  
  
"What the hell just happened in here?" asked Richard. He and Jason stood at the door.  
  
"Leo? What are you doing here?" said Jason. "I thought...Well, I could've sworn I remember you saying that you were Up There to stay this time."  
  
Leo smiled down at Chris. "I thought it would be best to stay down here with my family from now on. They need me more than the other elders do."  
  
Jason and Richard eyed the sisters curiously, and Jason spared them the complicated explanation by shaking his head and saying "I'm not even gonna ask."  
  
"Yeah, well, like my future self was saying—" past Paige tried to stifle a yawn unsuccessfully, "—let's go to bed. Even time-travelers gotta sleep, huh?"  
  
Just then, Brian orbed in, tears welling up in his eyes and threatening fall.  
  
"Brian, what's wrong?" asked Leo.  
  
"You guys, I am so, so sorry," he whispered, reaching into his pocket. "Please forgive me—I'm on Gideon's orders."  
  
"What—?"  
  
He sprayed the dust in their eyes, and everything switched around in an instant. The past sisters were invisible in the boys' room where Colin and Chris now slept peacefully; the future sisters and the girls were all in their respective rooms; Leo, Richard, and Jason were gone.  
  
"You're memories haven't been altered, but theirs have," Brian choked. "In their mind, Leo was never here a moment ago. Chris was only wounded for a minute or two since future Piper called Leo to heal him since she wasn't afraid. Leo's still evil, Wyatt's at his sleepover and evil as well, and the kids have still made their plans and potions and spells. It's basically what would've happened naturally without Piper butting in. I'm so sorry...but I had to do this."  
  
"Why?" Piper demanded. "Why? What are you, some sick-minded bastard that wants to see my son SUFFER? What kind of a whitelighter ARE you, anyway?"  
  
"I had to! It was either that, or my wings were clipped and another whitelighter replaced me, one that wouldn't understand the delicacy of this situation like I do!" Brian sighed in impatience, trying to calm himself down. "Look, I don't make the rules, but you can't deliberately change this future or the Chris in your time might be erased. We have to do this all as destiny plans. But now the only whitelighters you can see are me, Prue, Sam, and Andy."  
  
"My baby..." Piper said softly. She reached over to stroke him on the head but thought better of it and pulled away.  
  
"I'll be back, but for now you guys ought to get some sleep." He orbed away, wiping his eyes to face the elders.  
  
The sisters stared at the darkness in silence for a moment. Phoebe was the first to speak. "Well, you all heard the man. Let's get some shut-eye...one of us can have Wyatt's bed, and as for the rest of us..." She grinned. "Hey, Piper, you know how you bookmarked those ads for beds with the mini-beds underneath them, saying you'd get it for Wyatt one day? Let's see...ah, here's one. We can sleep on these."  
  
"I told you they'd come in handy one day," Piper said, forcing a smile and rolling out her mattress from under Chris' bed. "We'd better wake up before them, though, so they don't see the beds laying out."  
  
"Right," said Paige in agreement.  
  
Piper gave her son a last mournful glance before turning away to fall asleep.  
  
"Up, up, quickly!"  
  
Phoebe shook her two sisters awake. "You guys, we gotta get outta here before they wake up!" She gave the two boys an apprehensive glance to make sure they were still asleep and continued shaking her sisters. "UP!"  
  
Paige sat up groggily, rubbing her eyes. "What...?" She yawned loudly and surveyed her surroundings. "Oh yeah...we're still in the future."  
  
"Pheebs, why'd you have to—woops, guess I forgot," Piper sighed, realizing they were in a different time as well.  
  
They put their beds away just in time, because the two boys got up literally five minutes after them. Chris looked skeptically at the ground for a moment but continued down to the kitchen with Colin.  
  
"Morning practice today," he mumbled incoherently, half-awake. "Gotta...get the..." He yawned. "Bikes and stuff."  
  
"Wyatt said he'd leave the sleepover at nine and orb here," said Colin. "Any minute now...Hey, Wy!"  
  
"Sup, Col?" Wyatt greeted him as he materialized.  
  
He shrugged. "The girls are still asleep, we're getting breakfast ready before it's time to leave."  
  
"Alright, then..." He grinned mischievously. "I'll go and wake them up...mwahahah!" He orbed back upstairs and his entry was followed by several high-pitched screams of protest. Wyatt orbed down, drenched in head to toe with water.  
  
"Prue 'thought I was a demon' and SPRAYED me with a water bottle!" Wyatt exclaimed.  
  
The girls bounced down the stairs laughing at Wyatt. "Sorry, Wy, it was totally an accident! I wouldn't have mistaken you for a demon if you weren't so ugly!" Prue giggled.  
  
"Yeah, yeah," Wyatt laughed. He waved his hand and telekinetically floated her to her chair. "Eat, we're leaving soon."  
  
"Weee!" she squealed in the air.  
  
They all began to eat their breakfast with haste, grabbing their wheels and helmets the instant they were done.  
  
"They look just like they did yesterday," said Phoebe. "It's like they haven't changed at all."  
  
"Hm...but something's telling me that this isn't going to last," Piper commented with a hint of dread, watching her sons and nephew and nieces roll away down the street.  
  
"What makes you think that?" asked Paige.  
  
"WYATT, WATCH OUT!"  
  
A/N: MWAHAHA! I told you I like to make cliffies! The evil plot isn't over yet...and it shan't be for quite a long time...only the next tragedy isn't necessarily demonic...woops, shouldn't have told you that!!  
  
TBC! 


	9. New Power

Disclaimer: Still don't own anything...sigh...but I own the overly dramatic (and cough cough, unrealistic) plot to this story, little Prue, Mel, and Colin. MINE! MWAHAHA!!  
  
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;  
  
"WYATT, WATCH OUT!"  
  
The car blew its horn, just about to hit Wyatt since he was arrogantly riding in the middle of the street. The car was just about to hit him when Chris shoved him out of the way—and disappeared with him. (A/N—Ha ha, got you!! The tragedy's not till the next chapter...or the next one...aw, darn, I dunno when, but it's comin!! Maybe when you LEAST EXPECT IT...don't kill me!!)  
  
The four remaining kids stood dumbstruck, watching the car as it slammed on the brakes. The driver of the car stumbled out of the door. "Did I hit anyone? Is everything okay?"  
  
Bianca was the first to look around. "Where did they...?" She obviously spotted them because she gave the driver a smile and said, "Of course you didn't hit anyone, we were all on the sidewalk. Are you okay, sir?"  
  
"Y-Yes...but there were two boys a moment ago, I swear—"  
  
"Well, they're not here now," said Bianca, shrugging. "I didn't see any boys in the street, did you guys?"  
  
Mel, Prue, and Colin shook their heads. "Nope, everyone's on the sidewalk."  
  
The driver gave them a bewildered stare and slowly got into the car, driving away.  
  
"Told you so," Piper cried, running over to them before Phoebe and Paige could say anything in their defense. "Oh my god, what the hell just happened?"  
  
"Chris! Wyatt!" Bianca screamed, running across the street and towards a bush.  
  
Wyatt and Chris were tangled in the bush together, spitting out dirt and grass.  
  
"Are you guys alright?" asked Bianca, catching up to them. "You were both nearly hit by that car, how'd you get out so fast?"  
  
"Rapid acceleration," said Wyatt, grinning. "It looks like Chris got a new power. Thanks, little bro, you saved me there." He glanced at Chris and his pride for his little brother quickly changed to concern. "You're bleeding, Chris, your shoulder..."  
  
"Nah, it's okay," he blew it off. Wyatt stood and helped Chris to his feet. Chris winced but grinned. "What's it called?"  
  
"Rapid acceleration," Wyatt repeated. "Cool, huh? It's when a person can speed up really fast. I guess the elders gave you a new power! Hey, are you sure that you don't want me to heal that for you? It looks kinda bad..."  
  
"We're in broad daylight right now, maybe when we get home," Chris suggested. "I'm not missing practice. But from now on, can you PLEASE avoid dawdling around in the middle of the street? Honestly, Wy...you could've been killed..."  
  
"Hey, are we going or what?" called Mel from across the street. She and Prue and Colin still stood there, not allowed to cross the street since they were too young. (As Mel once put it, "We can vanquish demons but we can't cross the streets by ourselves—how twisted can out parents get?")  
  
"Yeah, we're going," Chris yelled back, getting up on his skateboard again. He gave Wyatt a look. "Promise?"  
  
"I promise I won't run out in the street like a moron," Wyatt said sarcastically, holding up his right hand, "boy scout's honor."  
  
"You're not a boy scout," said Mel pointedly.  
  
"Exactly," Wyatt replied with a grin.  
  
"Rapid acceleration?" asked Piper, staring at them. "I've never heard of that power."  
  
"I have," said Phoebe. "I can't remember where, but it was in the Book of Shadows, I think. Well, it's pretty cool. Nice time to get it, to..."  
  
"Um, we're never gonna catch them. BRIAN!" Paige yelled.  
  
"He's at the pool, you idiot!" Piper protested. In truth, though, she really wasn't keen of seeing the whitelighter again after what he'd done. No matter how many times she reminded her self that he was just doing his job, she couldn't shake of the anger she felt.  
  
To their surprise, Prue orbed in.  
  
"PRUE!" Piper shrieked. "Oh my god, you have WINGS!?"  
  
Prue grinned and hugged her younger sister. "Yeah, isn't that what Brian said?"  
  
"I didn't think...I mean, I wasn't...paying attention...Prue, you're a whitelighter! I can't believe it!"  
  
Phoebe joined in on the group hug as well.  
  
"Hey, are you the little sister I've been hearing so much about?" Prue asked, smiling broadly and giving Paige a hug. Paige hugged her back gratefully. "You're so cute!" Prue exclaimed. "Just like I imagined it..."  
  
"We've missed you so much!" said Phoebe.  
  
"Yeah, I've missed you too." Prue looked up ahead, realizing that the kids were far ahead of them. "Okay, travel time! Take my hands, I'll get you to Brian." She orbed them into the pool just in time, once again, to see their kids' arrival.  
  
"C'mon, you guys, get in the pool," Brian said lamely. He seemed a little out of it, not sad, just...put out.  
  
"Seriously, get in or I'll make you guys do a hard set," he tried to joke, forcing a small smile. "Halliwells...hurry up..."  
  
Chris passed him on the way to the pool deck and gave him a slightly bewildered look. "You okay, coach? You look...I dunno, weird."  
  
"I'm fine," Brian assured him. When Chris turned he saw the gash on his shoulder. "What happened to you? Are you okay?"  
  
"Yeah, I'm fine, just a little incident with Wyatt's stupidity," he said with a smirk.  
  
"You sure you don't want to sit out of practice? That's gotta hurt."  
  
"Nah, it's...normal," Chris said with a slight wince at his bad lying.  
  
Piper scoffed. "Like me, he's obviously well aware that no matter HOW many times you say that, you're never 'normal' in the Wicca world."  
  
Once the kids were in the water, Brian ran up to the sisters. "PLEASE don't tell me you just changed something, please! What the hell just happened to him? I hope you know that every single time that you—"  
  
"Brian, calm down...that was fate, not their doing," Prue assured him. She turned to them, rolling her eyes and "coughing" something along the lines of "paranoid, paranoid" before looking back at Brian. "The elders would find out if they did anything else and trust me, you'd be the first one they'd tell."  
  
Brian looked at Chris again, now swimming slower than usual because of his shoulder, and shook his head. "I sure hope so..." He did a double-take at the lane Chris was swimming in. Chris just automatically popped from one end of the pool to another and looked quite surprised with himself.  
  
"What the hell was that!?" Brian demanded, voice straining. Piper opened up her mouth to explain but Brian held up an impatient hand. "I know what it is, it's rapid acceleration—so much for the elders TELLING me when something important happens! My charge just got a new power and it looks like I'm the last to know!"  
  
There was a long pause as Brian caught his breath and returned to watching the kids swim.  
  
"Brian..." Chris came up from behind him, shaking a bit. "Um...I think I'm just gonna go home today...There's, uh, something I forgot to do."  
  
"You sure you're fine?"  
  
"Yeah...just a little dizzy," said Chris with a distant expression, grabbing his skateboard. "I'll probably be back for afternoon practice. See ya."  
  
"Be careful," Brian said sternly.  
  
Chris nodded slowly, walking away.  
  
"It's the new power," Prue explained. "I guess he's been doing that more than once since we started talking. It probably made him dizzy since he was going so fast."  
  
"Yeah, but he'll get used to it sooner or later," said Piper, watching Chris leave with a hint of concern on her face.  
  
"Hm..."  
  
A/N: MWAHAHA! I fooled you...no tragedy!! Well, actually, I had all intention of writing a catastrophe in this chappie but I got sidetracked by the ice cream man...(drools)...not. I really just thought that it would be too soon for yet another tragedy in their sad, angst-filled lives. 


	10. Unexpected Visitor

Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed, and I shall regret that until I die...Which, for all I know, could be any day now...lol, not.  
  
"I'll follow him home," Piper offered, shrugging. "You never know."  
  
"You'd better not..." Brian began to warn, but stopped short before he could finish, caving in on Piper's begging look. "Aw, what harm could it do?"  
  
Piper grinned, hugged Prue, and ran to follow Chris out the door.  
  
Chris took his swim bag and skateboard and headed towards the back of the pool where nobody could see him. Piper knew that he was going to orb and, thinking quickly, she grabbed his hand so she orbed with him. 'Lucky he couldn't feel that...' she thought.  
  
The instant he orbed in he flopped onto the living room couch in exhaustion. "Mom?" he called. "Anybody home?"  
  
"Up here, honey," future Piper called from the attic. "What's going on? Aren't you supposed to be at practice?"  
  
"Yeah, but something happened...I think I have a new power," he said, grinning slightly.  
  
Future Piper came down the stairs with a broad smile. "What is it? When did that happen?"  
  
"Wyatt called it rapid acceleration. It's like zipping from one place to another really fast, but it's really weird. I can't control it yet, I even accidentally used it in practice, but Brian didn't notice since he was distracted by something. It makes me kinda dizzy..."  
  
"Well, you sit here and I'll call your father. I'm so proud and I know he will be too!" Piper exclaimed.  
  
"No, that's okay, I'm sure he already knows," said Chris quickly, looking up at the ceiling apprehensively.  
  
'Oh yeah...' past Piper thought. 'In this reality, Piper doesn't know about...'  
  
"Leo! Leo, honey, Chris has a new power!"  
  
Chris bit back his lip, bracing himself, but nobody came. He breathed a sigh of relief. "He's probably just busy," he rationalized, "you know, elder business and stuff. Maybe later."  
  
Future Piper tapped her foot and looked Up There with a disappointed expression. "Well, I know he'll be happy to find out that you have a new power as soon as he comes back. I'll call him again this afternoon, but for now we should make some cookies for when the others come home, alright?"  
  
Chris' face lit up. "Sure!"  
  
Future Piper laughed. "I sure know the way to calm you down. Let's make some chocolate chip this time, it's yours and your dad's favorite...that'll bring him down eventually if nothing else will," she joked.  
  
Chris forced a smile. "Yeah..."  
  
BACK IN 2004...AGAIN...  
  
"I'm fine, Leo, you can leave now," Chris sighed.  
  
"First we should find out what the hell that was," Leo pressed. "You were hurt, even I couldn't heal you and I'm an elder. What if that happens again and there's no one here to help you?"  
  
"I already know what it is," Chris said softly.  
  
"Oh yeah? Care to explain?" Leo asked incredulously. "You weren't doing anything...wrong...were you?"  
  
Chris scoffed. "That's just like you, Leo...Jumping to conclusions..." He got up off the floor and motioned to the altar where the Book of Shadows lay open on the time-travel spell. "You see that? That's a spell...in PHOEBE'S handwriting. Do you wanna know what it did?" Without waiting for an answer, he continued. "It sent them to the future—MY PAST! They're finding out things they were never supposed to know...And, as was just demonstrated, they're changing it as well. They're gonna murder me..."  
  
"Why, Chris?" Leo inquired, eyes narrowing. "Is there something in your past that you want to hide from us?"  
  
Chris threw his hands up in the air in impatience. "Leo, this is complicated beyond your meaning of understanding! Just leave me alone so I can figure out how the hell to bring them back before they really screw everything up!"  
  
"What is there to 'screw up,' Chris?"  
  
"LEAVE ME ALONE."  
  
"Not until you tell me what you're hiding!"  
  
Chris whipped around and faced Leo, anger bubbling in his eyes. "You want to know what I'm hiding? Are you ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that you want to know!?"  
  
"YES, I'M CERTAIN."  
  
"Well, then, DAD," Chris said between gritted teeth, "you'll have to wait until I bring the sisters back."  
  
And then, before Leo could react, Chris recited the spell and disappeared right before his eyes.  
  
Piper watched her future self and son making cookies and grinned, remembering Grams using the same recipe with her when she was a little girl. They always made the best cookies; it was nice to know that that taste would be carried on through the generations.  
  
Her future self finally put the cookies in the oven to bake, setting it to 349 degrees. Both Pipers grinned; it was kind of a joke. Once Phoebe, when she was little, wanted to be a rebel, so instead of setting the oven to 350 she set it to 349. Ever since then the idea kind of stuck.  
  
Past Piper wondered what was going on at the pool. Was their practice going on as normal? Did Brian just keep them there?  
  
Suddenly her future self gasped. "Chris, what happened to your shoulder? Get over here this instant!" She pulled him over towards her to get a close look at it. "I'm definitely calling your father on this one."  
  
"But Mom—"  
  
"Leo! Leo, get down here, your son needs to be healed!"  
  
In an instant, Leo orbed down. "Where's Wyatt?" he demanded, looking around. "What happened to Wyatt?"  
  
"Nothing happened to Wyatt, I'm calling because of Chris," Piper explained.  
  
"Oh." Leo walked slowly over to Chris, giving him a stone glare as cold as ice as soon as future Piper couldn't see. Once he finished hastily healing him, he hissed in Chris' ear, "You may have brainwashed her, but soon I'll reveal you for what you truly are."  
  
Chris stood, dumbstruck, watching Leo orb away. When his mother turned towards him, though, he quickly changed his expression to one of happiness.  
  
"So, did your tell your father the good news about your power?"  
  
"Yeah...he was very excited for me," Chris lied.  
  
Past Piper shook her head. It wasn't right; how could her future self not see what was eating her son up inside?  
  
"Um, Brian?" Phoebe asked tentatively. "Just so you know, you've been telling them to practice their flip turns for like, the past thirty minutes. Don't you think it's about time for them to—I dunno—do something else?"  
  
"Oh, right—Uh, sprint laps starting off the blocks, okay?" he called out to the team.  
  
"How many?" Colin shouted.  
  
Brian shrugged in indifference, picking a random number. "Twelve. Then you're done."  
  
"Alright."  
  
Suddenly a bright, blindingly blue light flashed from behind them. All four of the adults whipped around to see what was going on, but it took awhile for the brightness and fog surrounding it to disintegrate. Once it did, a figure came into picture—and it didn't look too happy, either.  
  
"What possessed you," Chris began, infuriated, "to invade MY timeline behind my back?"  
  
MWAHAHAH!! I did it again, didn't I? You know, cliffies are really starting to get even for fun by the chapter...I should do this more often!! I can imagine: Math teacher: "So, what's the answer to this problem, Emma?" Me: "MWAHAHAH! I can't tell you or it'll break the suspense for the entire class! What fun would that be!?" Teacher: (slaps head in frustration) "Not again. Whose turn is it this time to slap some sense into her?" Class (edges away from my seat) Person Unfortunate Enough To Sit Next To Me: "Not my turn! Her evil sense of suspense...it kills me...KILLS ME..." (drops on floor dead). Me: "MWAHAHA! MWAHAHAHAH!!" (pause) "Does anybody have a cookie?"  
  
HINT HINT, Random insane person...cookies, plz... 


	11. Reliving Memories

Disclaimer: I don't own nothing but my microscopic brain...OH, DARN, I LOST IT AGAIN!!  
  
"Chris...calm down..." said Phoebe cautiously.  
  
"Calm down? HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW? You weren't supposed to...Bianca and I decided...How long have you been here?" he demanded, realizing that they were at the pool.  
  
"Long enough to find out who you really are!" Phoebe exclaimed, pulling him into a hug. Chris reluctantly hugged her back.  
  
"You were never supposed to know...Bianca would murder me..."  
  
"Why? Chris, you're family. Why didn't you just tell us in the first place?"  
  
"Think of it this way, Phoebe; a weird boy comes from the future and turns your lives upside down. How badly would you really want to believe that you were related to said person?" He sighed. "Besides, the mission was clear. I'd save Wyatt and leave...but nothing's changed yet."  
  
"You're BIG Chris?" asked Brian. "But...wait, I'm lost. This is so twisted! How'd you get here?"  
  
"Found the spell in PHOEBE'S handwriting," he accused. "Couldn't help myself...I had to get out of there before Leo...Oh, damn."  
  
Yet another blue light filled the entire room, causing them all to jump up in fright.  
  
"Chris! Where the hell are you?" boomed a voice.  
  
"Hello, Leo," Chris said, exasperated. "Great; while we're at it, let's invite the whole damn WORLD to come see the future!"  
  
"At least now I'll know what you're hiding," Leo shot back.  
  
"Break it up, break it up," said Paige. "Look, Leo, let me just say this before the surprise shocks you half to death—it's not what you expect."  
  
"Yeah, right," Leo scoffed, "and by that do you mean he's evil?"  
  
"He is not!" Brian said in Chris' defense.  
  
"Yeah, I'm—wait, you can see us? How do you know about...?"  
  
"Heh, I'm your whitelighter in this time. Woops, guess that that kinda slipped my mind when I started talking to you..."  
  
"You're—? Never mind, I don't have time for this...We HAVE to get you all out of here. Where's Piper?"  
  
"With mini-you," Paige exclaimed.  
  
"You're so cute when you're little!" Phoebe exclaimed. "Why didn't you tell us you were such a babe magnet?"  
  
"Don't talk like that, it scares me," said Chris. "Alright, where's 'mini- me'? We have to get Piper out of here, before it's too late..."  
  
"She already knows, there's no point in trying to get her out of here." Phoebe shrugged. "We all know, now."  
  
"Ugh! This is bad...but HE doesn't know and I don't particularly WANT him to," Chris said angrily, pointing at Leo.  
  
"I demand to know what's going on!" Leo looked Phoebe in the eye. "Tell me what he's hiding."  
  
"Brian, where'd Chris go?" asked Wyatt, coming at of the pool.  
  
"Home," Brian explained quickly, "he didn't feel good."  
  
"Oh...well, practice is over and we're gonna head back," said Wyatt. "You guys! Time to go home!"  
  
"Where's Chris?" Bianca whispered once she was certain they were out of Brian's earshot.  
  
Leo, Phoebe, Paige and Chris followed them out the door.  
  
"Who are all these kids?" Leo asked.  
  
"Colin and Mel are Paige's twins, right there by the poolside," Phoebe began. "And that girl right there, Prue, is mine. Wyatt, as you can see, is over there on the bike, and Bianca—well, it's complicated, Piper adopted her. Chris is..."  
  
"At home," Chris finished, "making cookies with my mom. I remember today and I strongly suggest that you leave if you know what's good for you."  
  
"Why?" asked Phoebe, giving him a concerned look.  
  
"You'll see...Can we please just leave?"  
  
"No!" Paige exclaimed, "I like it here. You're all so cute."  
  
"Not for long," he mumbled.  
  
Leo orbed them to the manor, assuming that that's where they were going next.  
  
"You may have brainwashed her, but soon I'll reveal you for what you really are," future Leo said menacingly in past Chris' ear.  
  
He orbed away, leaving Chris with a very hurt look.  
  
"So, did your tell your father the good news about your power?" asked future Piper, oven mittens on and flour smeared on her face.  
  
"Yeah...he was very excited for me," Chris gulped, looking near tears. He quickly pretended that everything was fine, though.  
  
"Piper?" older Chris asked. His past mother stood watching the scene, looking as if she might cry.  
  
"Chris? What're you doing...oh, I'm so sorry, honey..." She hugged him close.  
  
"Did I miss something here?" asked Leo hesitantly.  
  
"Leo!" Piper shrieked. "It's you! You're back to normal...Oh my god, you won't believe it, Wyatt put you under a spell in the future...Chris is our son."  
  
"What!?" Leo gasped, staring at Chris, speechless. "You're...my son?"  
  
"In the flesh," said Chris. "I didn't want to tell you guys, but I guess you found away around my lies...Hey, Phoebe, just so you know—that spell has personal gain written all over it."  
  
"Chris, I'm sorry...I didn't know...Why didn't you tell us?" Leo asked softly.  
  
"Yeah—and your powers, too! You didn't tell us you had rapid acceleration and freezing! Chris, you didn't have to lie to us...we would've understood..." Piper trailed off, tears running down her cheeks.  
  
"As I said before, I was supposed to leave before any questions were even brought up. It was just gonna be go to the future, save Wyatt, come back. Then there were some...minor complications...I haven't exactly found the demon that gets Wyatt yet..."  
  
"We'll find him, trust me. We'll help," Leo promised.  
  
"Mom! We're home!" Wyatt called. "Mm, I smell cookies! Another masterpiece from Mom and Chris, huh?"  
  
"Yeah, they're in the kitchen," said younger Chris. "Come and get them."  
  
"Yay!" called Mel, bouncing into the kitchen behind Wyatt.  
  
Colin followed her, orbing two of the cookies into his hand. "It's not personal gain," he laughed, "I can't fight demons if I don't get cookies."  
  
Prue grabbed the cookies from Colin and licked them. "Mm, thanks Col!"  
  
"Grrr..." he joked, walking up to the tray and getting another cookie. Bianca snuck up from behind him and took the next two from him like Prue did. "Hey!" Colin exclaimed. "That was mine!"  
  
"What can I say?" she giggled. "Personal gain comes with consequences."  
  
"Aren't they cute, Leo?" past Piper fussed. She looked behind her to see Leo's reaction, but Chris' tear-streaked face caught her eye first.  
  
"Chris...what's wrong?"  
  
A/N: All shall soon be revealed...and yet nobody has a cookie for me!! SOB Me WaNt CoOkIeS!! 


	12. First Death

Disclaimer: I STILL don't own Charmed!! IT'S NOT FAIR! WHY IS THE WORLD SO CRUEL!?  
  
(Sigh) Well, here's the story:  
  
"Nothing is wrong," Chris denied, wiping the tears away.  
  
"Chris..." said present Piper gently, "you know you don't have to lie to us. There's nothing left to hide, there won't really be any future consequences."  
  
"That's not why I can't tell you...it's...something else.  
  
"Oh."  
  
Phoebe cleared her throat. "Why don't Leo and Chris go upstairs for a moment and...set things straight?" she suggested.  
  
"Yeah, that might be good," said Chris gratefully. He scrambled up to the attic with Leo close behind him faster than Phoebe could even make a noise.  
  
"Why'd you send them upstairs?" asked Paige.  
  
"I was getting a major migraine between the two of them," Phoebe whined, rubbing her head. "Leo's feeling really sorry and guilty, and that's understandable since we all feel like that. But Chris felt...torn. Like something inside of him was ripping—the only other time I've ever been able to sense him was..."  
  
"...when Bianca came along," Paige and Piper said together.  
  
"But it wasn't just seeing Bianca that rattled him, it was something else...something he feared. Something that he couldn't stand, that he wanted to change. It was pretty bad—and whatever it was, it looks like it's one of the things he was trying to prevent. I don't think he should stay here you guys. Maybe we should send him back."  
  
"Yeah," Piper agreed, face etched with worry. "I've never seen him like that before."  
  
"I'll improvise...uh..." Paige thought for a moment and shrugged. "Worth a shot. Um, Bring the one that we choose back To where he traveled in our past."  
  
Leo came bounding down the stairs in less than a second and panted breathlessly, "Chris is gone! He just disappeared, I couldn't stop it or anything, I tried—"  
  
"We sent him back," Piper explained, "don't worry. We don't think he was all too prepared to be placed back into his memories."  
  
"Yeah, he was really upset," Phoebe added.  
  
"Okay, kids, go work on your summer homework," future Piper instructed. "Your aunts and I are going to be vanquishing another demon, alright?"  
  
"Can I help?" Chris and Wyatt asked at the same time.  
  
"Only one of you, and it's Wyatt's turn this time," future Piper sighed. "Next time, Chris; with that new power and everything...I'm afraid you might get hurt. For now you should go help your cousins' with their work since you're done with yours."  
  
"So am I!" Colin retorted.  
  
"Yes you are, and we're very happy that we have such smart kids here." Future Piper smiled, patting Colin in the head. "Now go do your work!"  
  
"Yes Aunt Piper," came the chorus of preteens before they all headed up the stairs.  
  
"Piper..." Leo said softly. "Chris and I were talking upstairs. I couldn't get much out of him, he was really tight-lipped about what was going on, but before he left, he mumbled something about...death."  
  
A stony silence followed his words, in which they stared at each other, not willing to believe what they had jus heard. Their silence, however, was interrupted by the younger Chris bouncing back down the stairs in search of something.  
  
"Col, I know you hid Mel's books again! Tell me where they are!"  
  
"NEVER!" screamed Colin in a notorious voice.  
  
"Then," Chris said darkly as Colin came down the stairs, "I'll just have to..." He formed his hands together as if about to throw a fireball, then pounced on Colin. "TICKLE YOU TO DEATH!"  
  
"Argh! No...Mercy, oh great one, mercy!" Colin joked, falling to the ground in a fit of giggles. "Alright...they're under...the couch..." he choked between his laughter. "No...more...tickling..." he begged.  
  
"Alright then; thanks for your cooperation. MEL! WE FOUND YOUR BOOKS!" he called up the stairs. "YOU CAN COME OUT NOW!"  
  
"Yay!" Mel walked out of the kitchen and Colin tried to pounce on her, but instead went right through her and hit the wall. Mel laughed and astral- projected back into her own body.  
  
"That's what you get," said Mel, sticking out her tongue and coming out of the closet in her solid form. "Now gimme my books back so I can finish my homework, alright?"  
  
"Yeah, yeah," Colin grumbled, handing them back to her.  
  
"Hey, I'm going up to the attic to see what demon they're vanquishing," Leo announced, orbing up to the attic. What he saw wasn't at all what he expected. Wyatt was in the dark corner, watching his aunts hover over the Book of Shadows. He was muttering to himself; Leo went up to him to get a closer look at what was to become of his baby son. (A/N—Note that Leo already knows that Wyatt is evil).  
  
"Summoning the demons...they'll never suspect it...dead in no time," he mumbled. "Hah." His voice suddenly whispered in a voice so harsh and cold that Leo jumped back, "Come, my minions...now is the time to destroy them."  
  
(A/N—Alright, I know that the whole "minions" thing was TOTALLY corny, but hey—I just turned thirteen and I'm blonde!! And there was a blooper on the other chappie...I'm not turning 14, it's 13...I just read that and realized my mistake!! Sorry, lol.)  
  
"What?" Leo gasped.  
  
Just then, two unmistakably identical demons shimmered in. They both had white faces with a single red stripe that went horizontally across their foreheads. Their red eyes glimmered in hatred and malice, and to Leo's horror, the looks on their faces matched the ones of Wyatt himself.  
  
"No...Wyatt, they're your family!" Leo cried out.  
  
"Kill them. Leave no evidence of your master's command," Wyatt ordered under his breath.  
  
The three sisters whipped around, frightened by the sudden entrance of the demon. The first demon lifted his hand and created a cloud of black smog and floated it towards Piper, causing it to lift in the air. With a sharp jerk of his arm, the cloud sent her hurtling towards the wall.  
  
((((()))))  
  
BANG!  
  
Mel, Colin, and Chris instinctively looked up towards the attic, wondering what was happening.  
  
BANG, BANG!  
  
"Stay here," Chris instructed, "tell the others to stay in their rooms. DON'T GO TO THE ATTIC, it could be dangerous." He orbed away and Paige grabbed her sisters' hands, following him.  
  
When they got there, they saw Chris, horrorstruck, staring at his mother's body. The demon dangled her up in the air by her arms, throwing countless fireballs at her even though she was clearly dead already.  
  
"MOM!" he shrieked, kicking the demon from behind. The demon lost focus and dropped her body on the ground.  
  
"Stop it," he said shakily, "don't hurt her!"  
  
"You can't stop me..." the demon hissed. "You'll just have to watch all of them suffer, starting with this one..." He blasted Piper several more times, Chris' eyes widening and brimming with tears more and the demon laughing even louder with every hit.  
  
"STOP IT!" Wyatt commanded. "You weren't supposed to dawdle—"  
  
"But I feed off of pain! We had a deal! I kill them and get to feed off the kids!"  
  
"You were supposed to kill them first!" Wyatt screamed. "Look what you've done! Those two are still alive and Chris KNOWS!"  
  
"Wyatt, I knew long before now," Chris said softly, getting up to his feet.  
  
Wyatt blew up both the demons in his haste to cover up what he had just revealed. "What do you mean, Chris? What did you know?"  
  
"I've known all my life that you were evil, yet I accepted you as a brother. Even when I told the others, they still loved you. We thought you could change, we thought you were good..." he sobbed. "But now I know that once you turn dark, there's no turning back. You make me sick."  
  
"So you knew?" Wyatt cackled. "I had a feeling...but that's not gonna change anything. Nobody can stop me now." Chris jumped, trying to grab him in mid- orb, but only succeeded in flying headfirst into the wall.  
  
He got up quickly, though, and faced his aunts. "He killed them. I know he did."  
  
"Honey, Wyatt wouldn't..." future Paige tried to rationalize.  
  
"Wyatt's a good boy, this was an accident," future Phoebe choked. "Wyatt would never...he's good..."  
  
"I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU THINK! Obviously I'm the only one here that sees him for what he really is, and if that's the way you want it, then so be it! I can only wish you good luck on surviving," he growled, "cuz with him around, you're not gonna last very long. All I know is that I'm the only one that can stop him...Be careful." With that final warning, Chris orbed away as well.  
  
Present Piper found that she was silently weeping, clinging desperately to Leo's shoulder. "It's not fair...he's alone...Why didn't he tell me?  
  
A/N—Mwahahah! Okay, this isn't when of my best cliffies, but it offers SOME suspense, right? Right. Er...Whatever! 


	13. Laying Blame

Disclaimer: ME NO OWN.  
  
"Oh my god," present Phoebe exclaimed.  
  
"Chris, Wyatt, come back!" future Phoebe wailed.  
  
"They're not gonna come...You heard them. Phoebe, I think Wyatt could be evil. We should've heard Chris out, there could've been a way to prevent it..." future Paige choked between her tears. "We'd better call him." With a last sob, she called, "Leo!"  
  
"I know, I know," he cried, orbing in. "I'm only allowed to come down to heal you guys, then I have to go..." His face was streaked with tears but he stumbled past his wife's body and healed Paige and Phoebe, then orbed away.  
  
"After what I've been seeing so far," present Phoebe said in a shaking voice, wiping her eyes, "I highly doubt that he's going back to the elders."  
  
"Can we orb to Chris?" present Piper asked softly.  
  
'. .' (((())))  
  
Chris sat on the very top of the Golden Gate Bridge, shivering in the cold. A storm raged all around him, the water in the bay below thrashing violently and swaying the bridge. All the cars were gone; the sky was much too dark and thunder and lightning boomed and flashed in every direction while the intense rain pounded down menacingly.  
  
He hugged his thin t-shirt, silent tears of remorse running down his cheeks and mixing with the rain. He shivered; partly from the cold and partly from not wanting to believe what he had just witnessed. How could this be happening? He wondered vaguely how the other kids were doing at home. Did they find out?  
  
It didn't matter what was happening at home, though. The look on his face clearly stated that he would never go back if he could help it, [present] Piper could see that even if she wasn't his mother yet.  
  
Leo and Piper crouched down beside what would someday be their son, wishing that there was something they could do. They watched him sitting there for an hour or so in silence before Piper finally spoke up.  
  
"This is what he didn't want to remember. This is why he's always been pulling away from me. I...left him."  
  
Leo pulled Piper into a hug. "It wasn't your fault, Piper...Besides, it's what Chris came back to change. He loves you, I can see that. Even if he doesn't want to remember it happening, your death is clearly one of the things he's trying to prevent," he assured her. "Our timeline will be alright."  
  
"That's not going to make a difference to what Chris has already gone through," she sobbed.  
  
"It will, Piper, he's going to change it. I know he will."  
  
They held each other in their safe little time-transport bubble that deflected off the rain, intent with being in one another's presence for once without an elder interruption. But, in the end, it was an elder that interrupted them—just not the one that they expected...  
  
"YOU MURDERED HER," screamed a furious future Leo. "YOU KILLED PIPER!"  
  
"No I didn't!" Chris scrambled up to his feet in shock, trying to wipe away his tears. "I did not kill my own mother, Wyatt did!"  
  
"Wyatt has never done anything wrong in his life, unlike YOU—YOU—POSER! YOU ARE NOT MY SON! Wyatt's the only son I've got and now he's MISSING because of you!"  
  
"HE IS NOT MISSING BECAUSE OF ME! HE'S MISSING BECAUSE HE'S EVIL, HE RAN AWAY—"  
  
Leo grabbed Chris by the throat so he couldn't speak, strangling him. "I am going to KILL you for what you've done," he boomed, "and there will be NO ONE LEFT to hear you scream!"  
  
"LEO, STOP IT!" Chris begged as Leo dangled him over the edge. "Deep down in your heart, you know that you're better than this spell. Please, you've got to believe me, you have to remember..."  
  
Leo stopped for a moment, loosening his grip as if something in Chris' words caught him by surprise; but, just as suddenly as the moment of distraction came, it passed. His grip tightened on Chris so he couldn't breathe.  
  
"Dad..."  
  
"DON'T CALL ME THAT, ONLY WYATT CAN."  
  
Future Leo threw an energy ball at Chris and released his grip, causing Chris to gasp for air while falling onto the cement of the abandoned bridge. Leo's face, twisted from grief and anger, was changed by his sudden satisfaction. He orbed away, not wanting to witness the fall.  
  
"NO!" Piper shrieked, bending over to look down. He was near the concrete now, he'd die in an instant if he fell...  
  
To both Piper's and Leo's relief, he manage to orb himself, but he was too weak to orb back up to the top and ended up sprawled out on the street. Present Leo orbed down with Piper to see what was happening to him.  
  
Leo surveyed Chris and said grimly, "He's not going to last long...in fact, if somebody doesn't find him soon, he'll be dead."  
  
((()))  
  
Bianca, Mel, Colin, and Prue sat in the attic, drying their tears. Little did they know that past Phoebe and Paige were there in the corner with them, wishing that they could comfort their children, too.  
  
Bianca was pacing back and forth now. "You guys, we don't have time for this...right now we have to stop Wyatt. And to do that, we need Chris."  
  
"You heard Aunt Phoebe and my mom, they said that Chris would be back. They said to just give him some time, that's all." Mel repeated their words but didn't sound all too confident on the matter herself.  
  
"It's not just that we need him to defeat Wyatt, it's more than that. Chris is alone, and, well, you guys saw Leo. He's pissed. He might get Chris or something and I don't want to lose him—he may not actually be my brother but he's my best friend," Bianca said softly, "sometimes more than that."  
  
If it had been two days earlier, when they first arrived, Phoebe would've expected to hear Colin's mocking song about Bianca and Chris, but no song came. He was utterly silent, sitting on the window seat and staring at the ground. "I can't believe he watched her die," he said after a minute or so. "I've never seen anybody die before."  
  
"Yeah, well trust me, Col; it isn't pretty."  
  
A bolt of lightning flashed visibly out side the window, followed by a great rumbling of thunder. Colin jumped off the window seat in fright.  
  
"I hope he's indoors," said Prue, voicing everyone's thoughts. Her eyes welled with fresh tears. "Why did Aunt Piper have to die?" she sobbed.  
  
Bianca walked over to her cousin (technically speaking) and wrapped her in an embrace. "It was just her time, honey, but it'll be fine. We're gonna be fine." She forced a smile. "We have Chris and Paige and Phoebe to take care of us, nothing bad will happen."  
  
Suddenly she jumped up. "Chris," she breathed. "I don't know how to explain it, but I can feel it...he needs me. Stay right here, I'll be back."  
  
She shimmered away, coming back seconds later with an unconscious Chris.  
  
Piper and Leo orbed in after her, unseen.  
  
"Chris! Chris, wake up!" Bianca pleaded. Her eyes flashed to the stairs. "PHOEBE! PAIGE! CHRIS IS BACK, WE NEED YOU!"  
  
Phoebe's footsteps bounded up the stairs and Paige orbed in. "What is it?" asked future Paige. She saw Chris on the floor, sopping wet and bleeding. "Oh my god, no...We can't lose them both! LEO!"  
  
"You can't call him!" Bianca screamed. "HE DID THIS!"  
  
"WHAT!?" future Phoebe exclaimed. "Bianca, stop your nonsense, Chris is hurt and we need—LEO! LEO, PLEASE!"  
  
"He won't come."  
  
"Bianca, please—"  
  
"I'm dead serious, HE WILL NOT COME. He's under a spell that Wyatt cast. Leo's convinced that Chris is evil, which is exactly why he attacked tonight." She determinedly looked up at the sky, shrieking, "ALRIGHT, ANY RANDOM WHITELIGHTER, FEEL WELCOME TO ORB DOWN IN HERE AT ANYTIME!!"  
  
To their shock, an elder orbed in—robes and all. "No ordinary whitelighter can fix this, only an elder can...because only an elder can fix the damage done by another of his kind. Don't count on us coming again; this is a special case, he has a destiny to fulfill, the Angel of Death told us so."  
  
He bent down and healed Chris, orbing away before Chris could see him.  
  
Chris looked up quizzically, expression confused and blank. Once he saw all the red, puffy eyes, he immediately remembered and his heart sank. "Leo..." he mumbled. "Where did he go?"  
  
Just then, the two red-striped demons shimmered in.  
  
"We have been resurrected to redeem our master's faith and pride."  
  
A/N—okay, we all can guess what's next... 


	14. Four Down

Tami—Dude, you're going to write a TEN-LINE review on how much you HATE my story and claim that it's not FLAME!? I understand that you're opinionated and I respect that, but if you really hate a story that much, DON'T REVIEW IT and spare me! Save it for a school topic or something! If you think my morals are wrong by changing Bianca's age, lemme tell you of another one of my morals: if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. I mean, I'm not asking for a perfect review, I'm just asking that nobody rants for a million lines about the flaws in what I've written. Besides, there are a thousand more stories out there with the same coupling with Phoebe/Jason and Richard/Paige—go scream at them but lay off of me, because I had the idea and came up with it on my own, just like they did. I did not copy—nobody did! We all just have the same ideas!  
  
WitchBitch—MWHAHA! You can't flee with Drew to Jamaica cuz I've already got him hiding there with ME!! (I wish, lol)  
  
Nemesis' Arrow—I think we shall be seeing future Chris, but I don't think I'll bring him back to his past/their future again. It's a little too complicated...; )  
  
Charmed Fan—Wow, you're good at predicting things!! Yay!!  
  
The Magic Bringer—Isn't being addicted to something a little...unhealthy? Lol, I don't care, I'm addicted to fanfic myself!! (crazy twisted grin at pic of drew on the wall)  
  
Charmed Melinda Halliwell—Yes, I think I'm running low on the juice for good cliffies...Maybe I should go fill up my tank at a gas station...Or I could kidnap Drew Fuller in his sleep for inspiration!! Thanks for your reviews!  
  
xjelliepotatoex—Yes, I brought in some more Piper/Leo love because it seems that the deprivation from this was tearing several peeps apart! Lol!  
  
ChArMeDcRaZiChIcK—Tell me how the birthday goes!! Ooo, put Drew on the cake! (Hey, I can dream!!)  
  
rafiki and Bubblz—(bows down) You were the only ones that gave me a cookie!! Thank you both! I appreciate it! (munches on invisible cookies) ME WANT MORE!!  
  
Faith and Kata Malfoy—I liked writing the annoyed-Chris scene myself! All I had to do was think about how CERTAIN people (cough cough my family) invade my personal space a lot and think about what I would've done!  
  
melissa—He cut his shoulder rapid accelerating to get Wyatt outta the way of da car! (even though I was ever so tempted to kill Wyatt off and end it there, lol). Hey, I hate those end-of-the-season cliffies, too...(rips hair apart and shrieks)  
  
skinnyfat-dude—Of course I like Charmed! Why else would I be writing this fic!? Lol...people ask the WEIRDEST questions sometimes...But I can't say I haven't asked freaky questions myself before!  
  
DrewFullerFan4Life—I'm glad that I was finally able to post all these stories! Hey, are you still on IM?  
  
Thank you very much also to the people I don't have time to respond to (my lil sis is back!!):  
  
star, Crimson Amber, Shadow-Black-Panther, buffspike, Piper xox Leo, BlueRMillie, DarcyM, X3, Evelyn Perry/Lady Eva, Nautica7mk, Cat, AK8.  
  
Disclaimer: I still don't own Charmed, but I'm sure that my athame will change the producers' minds!!  
  
Okay, here's the story:  
  
"NO!" Chris screamed.  
  
"Chris, orb everyone down into the kitchen—NOW!"  
  
Chris hesitated for moment, then flicked his nose three times at Bianca in signal. She nodded, shimmering away, and Chris, in turn, orbed away with Colin, Mel, and Prue. Present Leo orbed with Piper to follow them, but Phoebe and Paige stayed behind to watch the fight.  
  
It wasn't going so well for the remaining Charmed Ones. The first demon had Phoebe cornered, throwing energy blasts at her; the same was happening to Paige, who was desperately trying to repel the attacks too.  
  
"They're gonna—" present Phoebe cut herself off. The two demons banded together and formed a massive fireball with their powers combined, throwing it at their future forms. When the smoke cleared, it was apparent by the forms of their mangled bodies that they were dead.  
  
((()))  
  
Piper and Leo surveyed their surroundings. Apparently Chris' signal redirected them to the P3, where he thought they'd be safer.  
  
"You said it would be okay," Prue whispered, going near hysterics. "This is not what I call okay, Bianca!"  
  
"I know, but Prue...Life isn't always fair, alright?" She turned around, opening her mouth to say something to Chris, but stopped. "What's wrong?" she asked.  
  
Chris was shaking, sitting on a chair and still drenched head to toe in water. "Nothing...Dude, could someone turn off the air conditioning? It's really cold in here."  
  
"Chris...the heater's on," said Bianca, walking closer to him. "Are you really that cold? How long were you out there in the rain?"  
  
He shrugged. "I don't know..." he muttered between his chattering teeth. "But it's COLD."  
  
"I'll turn on the heat," Mel offered, eager to do something and take her mind off of the latest attack on the manor.  
  
"Th-thanks," Chris replied.  
  
Bianca sat down beside him, looking at him intently. His face was pale and glinted with sweat even in the dim light as he shook. They all sat down on the floor in silence before Chris spoke. "It's been fifteen minutes...it should be safe by now, but I want the younger three to stay here just in case. We don't know—" He gulped inadvertently—"what we'll find."  
  
They nodded in agreement and Chris and Bianca shimmered and orbed into the foyer.  
  
Bianca was the first to scream. "They're dead!" she shrieked. "They're dead, they're dead—What the hell are we gonna do?"  
  
"I don't know!" Chris burst, crying himself. They stood over the bodies for several seconds before Chris gasped up and shot back up. "The demons are gone," he said in an eerie, distant voice. "The little kids!"  
  
"Damn it, you're right!" They left the manor for the P3, and as Chris predicted, the demons were already there—attacking.  
  
"Chris! Bianca!" Colin screamed, protecting the girls inside his bubble shield that was quickly fading under the pressure of the demons' attacks. "We can't hold them much longer!"  
  
"Hey, you ugly demon-people!" Chris said desperately. "Come get me!"  
  
He started rapid accelerating around the room to confuse them, stopping every now and then to catch his breath. Colin let his shield down in exhaustion and he and Mel orbed away. Bianca ran to shimmer with Prue, but seconds too late—  
  
The demon hit her and she crumbled to dust before anyone could do anything to save her.  
  
A/N—I know this was a REALLY short chappie, but I have to leave soon... 


	15. Spells Undone

A Look into the Future—Chapter 15  
  
Disclaimer: Do you THINK I own Charmed!? Didn't think so.  
  
A/N—Erk!! Sorry for the lack of clarification—PRUE turned into dust, not Bianca!! That would take this fic from slightly AU to totally impossible!  
  
((()))  
  
"PRUE!" Bianca shrieked, running over to the ashes that were now all that was left of her cousin. "No...NO...Prue, you can't be dead..."  
  
The demons grinned and shimmered away. "We'll be back before long," the second hissed.  
  
Chris fell to his knees beside Bianca and Prue, burying his head in his hands and muffling his cries of anguish. "This wasn't supposed to happen...Prue and mom and the aunts...they're dead, it's all our fault...We could've used the plan earlier...stopped Wyatt before...before..." He turned away.  
  
"It wouldn't have worked," Bianca choked through her tears. "MEL, COLIN! COME BACK!"  
  
"We're right here," Mel wept, "we saw everything."  
  
The four of them all huddled together in their sorrow, holding each other close. The thunder rumbled outside but nobody seemed to notice. Present Piper and Leo were accompanied by Phoebe and Paige, and Phoebe started sobbing as well once she saw her future daughter dead.  
  
"I told her everything would be alright...I told her that, I lied..." Bianca said softly.  
  
"It wasn't your fault, Bianca," Colin assured her softly.  
  
"Where are we going to go? What are we gonna do?" asked Mel.  
  
"We still have Jason and Richard..." Chris suggested. He closed his eyes, trying to sense for them, but came up with nothing. He frowned and tried again, but when he opened his eyes they were wet with tears. "They're gone..."  
  
His announcement was only met by louder sobs from the twins, knowing that their father was dead as well as their mother. Once the tears had died down and the acceptance of the many deaths in that day had rubbed in, they settled onto the couches and cried themselves to sleep.  
  
"It wasn't just my death Chris was avoiding, it was all of theirs," Piper realized, watching them sleep. "That was horrible, no kid should have to go through that."  
  
"At least we know that Chris and Bianca will live," Phoebe said gently. The four of them curled up in the office to sleep when they heard an orb.  
  
"It happened, didn't it?" asked Brian, looking at the four remaining children. "They told me ahead of time after you guys changed everything. Piper, Phoebe, Paige, little Prue, Richard, and Jason were all meant to die today. I'm...sorry you had to watch that." He sighed in remorse. "I'll be back in the morning, but not for you."  
  
"Wait—" Piper wanted to show Brian the still shaking, pale Chris but decided against it, knowing that it might change the future again. She let him orb away before she turned to her sisters. "Chris is sick, I can tell. Look at him."  
  
"There's nothing we can do," Leo tried to reason, even though it was evident on his face that he was worried as well. "Just go to sleep, Piper."  
  
((()))  
  
Piper woke first from the sun that was coming in through the skylight. She looked at the kids; Bianca was contently sleeping on Chris' shoulder on the couch and the twins were huddled onto the big chair next to them. 'At least they can forget in their sleep,' thought Piper to herself as she watched them.  
  
But she jinxed it by thinking that since Bianca stirred and opened her eyes. Once she realized that she was leaning on Chris she blushed madly and pulled back from him.  
  
"Chris, wake up." She shook him until he groggily opened his eyes.  
  
He looked around, confused for a moment, then his face went blank. "Wake up the twins, we have to form another plan. Wyatt's too strong," he said, looking defeated. He shivered involuntarily and looked over at the twins, breathing a sigh of relief once he knew they were okay.  
  
"Mel, Col, get up," said Bianca. Once they opened their eyes, she turned to Chris. "I don't think we should try, at least not right now. We just lost them all, Chris, we need a little time to be alone..."  
  
"And the more time that we take, the more innocents are sacrificed," he said harshly. His face softened. "I don't mean to be unfeeling, I miss them too—but I don't want to lose you guys because we were too late to take a stand."  
  
Bianca nodded and stood. "Let's eat first, then; I'll go to the manor and grab some cereal or something. And I'll go up to the attic to find the spells and potions and all that stuff. I'll be right back—you stay here with them, you can protect them better than I will."  
  
"Hey, Bianca, can you get that spell book of mine in the bedside table?"  
  
"Sure," she answered.  
  
"Thanks, and...promise me you'll be careful," he whispered.  
  
"You too." She shimmered away.  
  
"Bianca's coming back, right?" Mel sniffled, watching the spot she had just left expectantly. She didn't get a response. "Right?"  
  
"Of course," Chris replied shiftily. "Why wouldn't she?"  
  
Piper took the moment of pause to her advantage and roused her sisters and husband from their slumber. "The kids are awake," she informed them. "Bianca just left to go and get them all some supplies that they need, I think they're planning to stay here for a while...which makes sense, since there's no one to own the club anymore," she added, slightly sarcastically in her acceptance of her death.  
  
"Piper, the Angel of Death never really did collect your soul, you can be saved..." Leo repeated, giving her a good morning kiss. "Sleep well?"  
  
"No. And neither did Chris, as I can see..." She indicated the dark circles under the young boy's eyes as he looked after his two younger cousins. Something about him seemed weathered, as if that entire night had sucked the life out of him. He coughed loudly but managed to suppress it before Mel and Colin turned around.  
  
"Got the cereal," said Bianca, announcing her presence after she shimmered in. "Here you guys go...There should be some bowls and spoons in the back kitchen if you need them..." She walked over to Chris and handed him the notebook. "Do what you have to do. I'll keep them busy back there, but hurry."  
  
Chris nodded as Bianca directed the twins into the back kitchen. He sighed and flipped the notebook a few pages, stopping when he found the right spell.  
  
"What's he doing?" asked future Leo.  
  
"That's his spell book," Paige explained quickly, "like his own mini Book of Shadows. When we changed time, he had developed a spell to change your future self—but Brian had to change it back, so it didn't really do much good..." She gave up once Leo, clearly not understanding, gave her a bewildered stare. "It's complicated."  
  
"I figured," he responded.  
  
Chris took in a deep breath and crossed his fingers, gripping the book tightly in his shaking hands. "LEO!" he screamed. "COME DOWN HERE AND FACE ME!"  
  
"What's he doing?" present Leo screamed. "Is he NUTS? You all saw what has happened—calling him—erm, me—is like suicide!"  
  
"He knows what he's doing," Phoebe reassured him.  
  
"LEO! I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME!" When that didn't work, Chris changed the angle of his bait and began taunting the elder. "AREN'T YOU ANGRY THAT I'VE BEEN POSING AS YOUR SON? DON'T YOU WANT TO GET BACK AT ME FOR KILLING YOUR EX-WIFE!?"  
  
Future Leo orbed down in an instant, maniacally growling, "Aren't you supposed to be dead?"  
  
Chris gulped. "I really, really hope this works..." He stepped forward, shouting the words as quickly as possible before Leo could muster up an attack.  
  
"Take away the blind one's mask,  
  
Make the father remember his task,  
  
Bring back memories from long ago,  
  
So he will understand friend from foe."  
  
"It's just like before," said past Piper, "he's remembering, look!"  
  
She was right—just like before, the irrationalized anger in Leo's eyes was transferred to a confused look. He gawked at his surroundings, asking, "Where am I? How did I get here?" When he saw Chris, something seemed to hit. "The spell...Buddy, I'm so sorry..." he apologized, walking over to Chris. He tried to give him a hug but Chris flinched and jumped back.  
  
"I guess I deserved that," he admitted. "It was Wyatt's spell, Chris—"  
  
"I know," said Chris coldly.  
  
"I couldn't control anything...when I was around you. You can't begin to imagine how sorry I am for what I put you through, Chris, but I didn't mean it—any of it. You're my son, I love you just as much as I do Wyatt..."  
  
"But Wyatt's evil, he killed mom!"  
  
"I know that. I'm sorry...you had to see that. You look...so much like her, Chris. You're determination...You really are Piper's son. I was never there for you, was I? What kind of a father..." He hung his head low and orbed away.  
  
"WAIT—" Chris was too late; Leo was gone. He sunk onto the couch. "We need your help..." He fell into another coughing fit that lasted a good minute before he stood back up.  
  
A shriek erupted from inside the kitchen and Chris leapt up in fright, rapid accelerating into there. Leo and Paige orbed the four of them, too, to see what was going on. Fortunately, though, it wasn't a demon.  
  
"Hi guys," said Brian hesitantly. Two toddlers clung to his legs. "Meet my other charges...Uh, I'm a whitelighter."  
  
Mel screamed again and jumped back, causing the toddlers to whimper.  
  
"But you're a swim coach!" Bianca objected.  
  
"No, he's the day care man," corrected the first toddler indignantly, stamping his foot down.  
  
"Er...this is gonna take some explaining."  
  
((()))  
  
Okay, not much of a cliffie...but it's gonna be strange...MWAHAH!! Thanks for all the nice reviews, I appreciate it! 


	16. Late Warnings

Disclaimer: I still don't own anything—so sue me!  
  
((()))  
  
"We're WAITING for said 'explanation'," Bianca retorted. "What the hell is going on here? This is WAY too confusing. So, you're a whitelighter? Imagine that. Why doesn't anyone bother to tell us anything anymore?"  
  
"Er...I don't know. But these two are Bindle and Bailey, they're brother and sister—Bailey's six and Bindle's four."  
  
"And you're telling us this because...?" Mel questioned.  
  
"Well, uh, with Wyatt on the loose and everything—"  
  
"HE'S ALREADY STARTED KILLING PEOPLE?" Chris burst.  
  
"No, but we think he might go after witches and I need someone to watch these two while I go alert the others. Their parents are out helping spread the word, too, and I didn't want to leave them alone. I know you guys, I've watched you since you were little—"  
  
"If you're gonna ask us to take care of them, please keep in mind that we couldn't even protect our cousin from getting murdered," Mel snapped. "How are you expecting us to take care of two babies?"  
  
"Not babies!" shrieked Bindle, raising her hand and blowing a hole in the wall with a fireball. "Not, not, not!!"  
  
"Um...that could be a problem," said Chris, glancing over at the smoke that was rising from the impact. Bindle giggled.  
  
"No, no, BAD," Brian scolded. He looked up at the four older kids apologetically. "They may be a bit of a handful, but I'm sure you guys can manage it. I'm Chris' whitelighter, by the way, your guys' are Up There on duty with other charges. Well, what do you say? Will you guys watch them?"  
  
Bailey, still laughing at his sister, cloned himself until there were five Baileys howling in laughter. The room seemed to shake from the noise he was making and Mel and Colin instinctively covered their ears to block the sound.  
  
"Gee, no problem," said Bianca.  
  
Brian seemed to miss the sarcasm in her voice and grinned. "Thanks, guys, I knew I could count on you. Be good you two," he said sternly, orbing away.  
  
Bindle stuck her tongue out at the spot Brian had just left. "Mean man," she growled, "pooey on him."  
  
"Yeah!" the Baileys agreed. "I don't like him. He's too bossy." He un- cloned himself until he was one annoying six-year-old boy with black hair staring up at them. Bindle also had black hair that ran down to her waist, and they shared their innocent jewel-like hazel eyes.  
  
"They look so cute," Mel gushed.  
  
"Even a rose has thorns," said Bianca under her breath. "What are we supposed to do? Play entertaining crew? This is SO unfair. How the hell are we supposed to stop Wyatt if we're cleaning up their drool?"  
  
Bailey and Bindle gasped in horror, causing them all to jump up in search of a demon. "You said a BAD WORD!" Bailey accused. "Mommy says that we're not allowed to say the H-word!"  
  
"Yeah," Bindle added, "and the s-word and the f-word and the a-word and the b-word—"  
  
"You realize that that list is pretty much endless, right?" Mel said pointedly. She sighed. "Alright, we can't stop Wyatt, we need to get some more food for them, find some more places to sleep, protect those twits from demons and try our hardest not to cuss. And we have to do all of this without bugging Leo..."  
  
"He's not a problem anymore," Chris said grimly.  
  
"What do you mean?" asked Colin.  
  
"Who's Leo?" asked Bindle.  
  
Chris ignored Bindle's interruption. "I mean that I tried a spell on him to reverse Wyatt's curse, and it worked..." He looked Up There. "But now he's going through this whole drowning-in-shame crap and won't come back down."  
  
Bindle and Bailey opened their mouths to gasp again but Chris, thinking ahead, flicked his hand and froze them before they could try. "That's really going to get on my nerves," Chris groaned.  
  
"It won't make a difference if you freeze them. Time has stopped, so you won't be relieving yourself of baby-sitting duties by doing that," Bianca pointed out. "Can you find another way so they're frozen but time isn't?"  
  
"I think..." he said skeptically. He twisted his hands and looked at Bindle and Bailey in concentration. The clock to their left started ticking and the sounds of pedestrians out on the street became audible once more. "Problem solved," he announced with a grin. He got closer to the twins, surveying them. "I don't know...tell me if you find this crazy, but do they look...familiar?"  
  
"Yeah, they do, come to think of it," said Bianca.  
  
Mel got up and looked at them. "Kind of like—well, you know that picture on the wall of that aunt we never met? Prue, I think. Their hair kind of reminds me of her."  
  
"That's because there my kids," said older (whitelighter) Prue.  
  
The four of them jumped up in shock.  
  
"Can you all STOP DOING THAT?" Mel gasped. "Please...You're all gonna give us a heart attack if you do it again..."  
  
Prue laughed. "I see you've done a nice job freezing the two of them, Chris. Look...I'm really sorry about what happened earlier, but I wasn't allowed to interfere with their deaths. Brian was assigned to Chris and can only heal Chris, just like I'm assigned to Prue and...she was dead before I could feel her pain, so..."  
  
"Wait—the twits are YOURS?" Mel exclaimed. "But you're DEAD!"  
  
Prue chuckled. "So is your Uncle—Chris and Wyatt's father. You see, my sister...Piper," she said with a hint of remorse, staring at Chris, "fell in love with her whitelighter. It was a whitelighter-charge relationship, strictly forbidden...But they broke the rules and the stork brought along our little Wyatt and Chris." She grinned. "Well, the same thing happened with me and my charge. He's a witch like you all, actually; that's where the twins got most of their Wicca powers, though some are from the Halliwell line. His name is Mark Sanders, he lives in San Francisco. Could you, uh, unfreeze the kids so I can take them to their father?"  
  
Chris grinned sheepishly, blushing. "Yeah, sure...sorry 'bout that..." He flicked his hand and the twins unfroze, bewilderedly gawking all around them until they saw Prue.  
  
"Mommy!" Bindle squealed, running over to her with Bailey close behind.  
  
"See you guys," said Prue once she had collected her children. "Take care of yourselves." Just like before, though, she gave Piper, Leo, Paige, and Phoebe a wink and orbed away.  
  
Mel brushed away the tears that leaked from her eyes. "I miss my mom," she sobbed, clinging onto Colin's shoulder.  
  
"Prue didn't tell us she was a MOTHER," Phoebe hissed.  
  
"I know!" Piper exclaimed. "Honestly, of all the things she forgot to mention—her own kids and this husband of hers, Mark something or another...Well, I'm personally glad that she's able to fulfill her life even as a whitelighter and I'm glad that proving our whitelighter-charge relationship worked opened doors to others too." She gave Leo a kiss on the cheek.  
  
"I don't know much about Prue, but I'm glad for her just the same. To bad she never got to be married in life..." Paige deliberately turned away from the twins, crushed by their anguish. "I REALLY don't like this timeline."  
  
"Me too..." Leo agreed.  
  
Just then, two more demons—orbed?—in. They looked just like the red-striped demons only they were orbing. Colin didn't seem to notice nor did he care; he blasted his shield around the four of them and drew back his arm, ready to through fireballs. Chris, however, understood the situation and grabbed his cousin before the fireball was released.  
  
"Wait," Chris ordered, staring intently at their two intruders. "Who exactly are you?"  
  
The first of the two panting "demons" gasped out, "Whitelighters. We've been going undercover in the Underworld—we've come—" He gasped again, "to warn you—"  
  
"Warn us of what?" Bianca demanded.  
  
"The demons! They're coming!" the second finished, orbing the two of them out.  
  
The door burst open and two demons with scaly purple skin slithered in, having human arms but a snake-like bottom. Their penetrating green eyes split eerily through the dim light, making everyone shiver. They rounded on Mel and Colin, and to Bianca's and Chris' surprise, they did nothing to fight. Their faces went blank to all emotion and their eyes dull; almost...inhuman.  
  
"What do you call me by?" the demon asked Mel.  
  
"Master..." she droned.  
  
He grinned maliciously. "Good. Now, follow me my pets..."  
  
"You can't take them!" Bianca shrieked, desperately trying to reach them. Colin threw up his shield, knocking her out of the way of the demons and protecting the evil side.  
  
"Gotta problem?" asked the other demon that handled Colin. "I'll fix that. Sic her, Colin."  
  
"Yes, master." He drew back his arm yet again, taking aim at Bianca and firing, concentration etched onto his face like it never had been before.  
  
It seemed to go in slow motion; seconds before the fireball made impact with Bianca's stomach, Chris rapid accelerated out of nowhere and got her out of the way. The demons shimmered away with the twins before they could see.  
  
Though this time, rapid accelerating hadn't saved them both.  
  
Chris lay wounded where he landed after hitting the wall, bleeding and completely out cold.  
  
(((())))  
  
A/N—Haha! I got in another tragedy! I win!! 


	17. The Reversal

Disclaimer: I still don't own anything—so sue me!  
  
"Colin, Mel—come back!" Bianca screamed. She looked around but they had shimmered out already. She turned to Chris to thank him for the speedy rescue, but saw his limp form and gasped. "Chris...Chris, wake up! I can't lose you too..."  
  
Chris moaned slightly, trying to get up to no avail. "It's okay," he managed to wheeze, "Col's not that powerful yet."  
  
"If we don't get help, you're gonna...you might die, Chris, and I don't want to lose you. We can't lose you. You're our last hope..." she sobbed. "You're the only one that's ever really taken the time to know me. When I first came to the manor, you were the only one that was there for me and you still protect me all the time. There has to be a way...Could we call Leo?"  
  
"No..." Chris took in a shuddering, jagged breath glanced Up There. "He's not ready."  
  
"I don't care!" Bianca cried. "I don't want you to die!"  
  
"I won't." He closed his eyes and rested against the wall, his breathing now shallow and quiet.  
  
"Chris?" Bianca whimpered. He didn't respond. "Chris...don't do this...wake up..." She glanced tentatively Up There and shouted, "Leo! Leo, come down here!" Her face drooped. "He doesn't know me...he never knew I moved in...damn it. Leo, please—LEO WYATT, GET DOWN HERE! Your son needs you, he's dying! After all you've done to him, I'd think you'd at least have the decency to—IT'S ABOUT TIME!" she screamed.  
  
Leo orbed in, frazzled for a moment. "Who are you?"  
  
"It's a long story, but I know you from...other sources. I'm Chris' sister, in a way—"  
  
"Chris doesn't have a sister," Leo objected. Confusion was etched all over his face. "Unless you ARE his sister and Wyatt put me under another one of his spells so I'd forget—"  
  
"Leo, snap the hell out of it! Chris needs you, he's dying," Bianca interrupted furiously. She moved out of the way so Leo could see his son, now frail and lifeless on the ground.  
  
"Chris!" He ran over to them. "Please, I hope it's not too late...I've been so horrible to him already, how could I let this happen?" He began to heal Chris, but he remained unconscious even once the wound closed. "There must be something else that caused this, something besides the fireball—otherwise it wouldn't be taking so long. Got any ideas?"  
  
"Yeah...he was sick this morning, too, but kind of discrete about it. Chris, you're alive!" she screamed once he opened up his eyes. She hugged him.  
  
"Uh, Bianca? Can't...breath..."  
  
"Oh, sorry," she said quickly, releasing him.  
  
Chris looked up at Leo. "Thanks...Dad."  
  
"You're welcome," Leo responded with a slight grin. "Now, does anybody mind recapping what's been happening since I've kinda been Up There and under a spell for so long? I'm a little...lost," he said, looking over at Bianca.  
  
"I don't blame you," Bianca laughed ruefully. "Well, I moved in a couple of years ago one my mom was killed in a weird demonic accident that Piper was involved in. I'm a phoenix, actually, but when I was young, like all phoenixes, I could be shaped into good or evil—which is why I live in the manor. Piper thought it'd be a little hard to explain to adoptive parents why I could shimmer and summon objects and everything.  
  
"That's why I'm here, at least. More has happened since you were gone...all of our powers have advanced, but I'm sure you know that since the elders make those decisions. I just wish...you could've seen all of us. Prue is dead and the twins are possessed. Can you by any chance...?"  
  
"Of course I'll help." Leo stood, offering Chris his hand and helping him up to his feet. "I want to save them just as much as you do. We can scry for them; they're technically still good witches."  
  
"We can't go into the manor," said Bianca. "Those demons are everywhere, I'm pretty sure they can sense us while we're in there."  
  
"It'll only take a little while. C'mon, we want to do this as fast as we can."  
  
The three of them orbed into the manor, finding that it was intact other than the few small burn marks on the walls. The bodies of the Charmed Ones were gone; most likely take Up There before any mortals noticed.  
  
Past Leo, Phoebe, Piper and Paige orbed with them.  
  
"Man, I'm glad everything's back to normal with me and mini-Chris," Leo said in relief.  
  
"I just hope that they can find the twins in time," said Paige, voicing all of their thoughts aloud. "What if...?"  
  
"We've been waiting for you, Christopher and Bianca." The harsh voice came from the shadowy corner of the attic, yet no one in the room flinched. The voice was familiar, yet...foreign. Curiosity overcame their fear, and it made sense as they saw Colin and Mel reveal themselves, wearing the same twisted grin. Their eyes remained emotionless down to the core.  
  
"Our masters know you're every move," Mel spoke, her voice still dull and toneless. "They're watching..."  
  
"...they're here..."  
  
"...and it's time for you to pay the price," they finished in unison. They stepped together and grabbed hands, a beam of green light bursting all around them. "See what our masters have taught us?" said Colin.  
  
"Now we have the power to—"  
  
Chris snapped out of his entrancement at the twins' sudden change and froze the two of them. "What the hell was that?" he asked to no one in particular. To his surprise, Leo answered.  
  
"They were using a kamikaze attack—it would blow up and kill them both, but kill us in the process," Leo gulped.  
  
"How do we stop them?" asked Bianca.  
  
"I don't think there's a way," Leo said grimly.  
  
"There has to be a way. There's always a way — we should know that by now! Look at what came before us; the Charmed Ones, the LEGENDS that stopped demon after demon endlessly —"  
  
"They were killed in the end," Bianca said quietly.  
  
"Yeah, but it wasn't a demon that killed them, it was someone they loved and trusted. Wyatt abused his power and eventually he will pay...but for now, we have to stop and fix what he's done to Mel and Colin. Let's move them out of the way of that beam-thingy, that should spare us a few minutes once we unfreeze them..." He nudged Mel and Colin to the left so they were out of harm's way, making the beam of light disappear without them.  
  
"Phew," Bianca sighed. Her face lit up for a moment. "Wait—the spell you used on Leo. Would it work on them if we changed it?"  
  
Chris shrugged. "I'll try..." He closed his eyes in concentration  
  
"Take away the blind ones' masks,  
  
Make the two warriors remember their task,  
  
Bring back memories from long ago,  
  
So they will understand friend from foe."  
  
He hesitantly unfroze them, and to their delight, the twins' expressions turned from dull to confused. "What...?" asked Colin. "How'd we get here?"  
  
"Where are the demons?" added Mel.  
  
"Wait...what's the last thing you can remember?"  
  
Mel gave Chris an awkward, inquisitive look. "Uh...the demons, you idiot—we were in the P3 and the demons attacked. Where'd they go?"  
  
"You guys got possessed by them!" Bianca retorted.  
  
"Maybe we should go," Leo suggested impatiently, shiftily checking around for demons.  
  
"Right," Chris agreed.  
  
"What the hell are you doing here?" Colin demanded.  
  
"Long story," said Chris. "Orb. Now."  
  
........  
  
A/N—sorry for the short chappie. it's gonna take longer for me to update because I'm not at home, I'm away...so in a week I'll update lots lots more. R&R, plz! 


	18. Two Years

Disclaimer: I still don't own anything—so sue me!  
  
"We've been WHAT!?" Colin exclaimed.  
  
"Possessed," Bianca repeated in impatience. "I told you once, I told you twice, and now I'm getting annoyed. Let me make it a bit more clear: YOU- GOT-POSSESSED-BY-THOSE-DEMONS-AND-TRIED-TO-KILL-US. The demons are still on the loose!" Mel opened her mouth to ask another question but Bianca answered it first. "And Leo's here because Colin nearly killed Chris, and...well, you heard what Chris said about the spell being reversed. Leo healed Chris."  
  
"Sorry," Colin mumbled.  
  
"No problem," Chris laughed, "just don't do it again..."  
  
Leo, Phoebe, Paige and Piper leaned against the wall, watching the scene. "This is getting weirder and weirder by the minute..." said Piper. "So many things are happening here, I can barely keep up!"  
  
"You're telling me—I got lost about an hour back." Paige fiddled with her bracelet. "It's like some never-ending tragic film that gets really bad, then good, then worse. Could this really be our future?"  
  
"Not anymore, at least, since Chris is changing things in our time," Leo pointed out.  
  
"Hey, wait—I just realized something," said Piper. "We've been here for like, three days, and yet we're never hungry and we never have to...well, 'freshen up.' What's up with that?"  
  
"Basically no time has lapsed outside of the manor since you guys left. This spell took you here and about noon on Wednesday, right? It's still noon to all the mortals on earth. Chris and I only knew you guys were missing because you're our charges. You guys won't change because time has stopped in our world," Leo explained.  
  
"Okay, I find that disturbing," said Phoebe with a shudder. "But it makes a little sense, I suppose..."  
  
"Well, those demons sure are a problem," said future Leo. "We have to get to them before they find you. You all are vulnerable here, without a whitelighter."  
  
"Brian popped in this morning," Mel muttered, wincing at the memory of Bindle and Bailey.  
  
"That's not enough. I'll stay with you guys until I'm certain you'll be—"  
  
JINGLE, JINGLE.  
  
There was a significant pause in the room. "Just go, Dad, they need you," said Chris after a moment.  
  
"Are you sure you can—?"  
  
"Yeah, I'm sure," said Chris, forcing a grin. "You can come back once you're off duty or something. We'll be fine; we've dealt with demons before—"  
  
"But you were under supervision—"  
  
Mel gave a slight cough of guilt in the back of the room, at which point Bianca nudged her and held a finger to her mouth.  
  
JINGLE, JINGLE!  
  
"Bye dad." Chris waved and Leo orbed away.  
  
Brian orbed in—only seen by the sisters—with a slightly haggard look. "I can only do a little bit more," he said. "This will be hard to explain—uh, I'm taking you about two years into the future. My body's been split in two; half of me stays in this time, fulfilling fate and all that crap, and the other half plays tour guide until you guys have had enough.  
  
"Well, here's the summary of what'll happen, I guess...Leo never comes back, he'll disappear with four other whitelighters and two other elders in about three days in this time, on a mission in the Underworld. They're haven't been found yet in the time we're about to go to, but I think they'll...Well, I don't know for certain. So Mel, Colin, Chris, and Bianca live in the P3 and manage to fend off most of the demons. I bring them food and all the stuff they need, and Bindle, Bailey, Prue, and Mark move in with them. It's a bit...crowded.  
  
"Meanwhile, Wyatt's killing innocents on a rampage with his minions. Magic has been exposed...and the kids go to school still, Piper," Brian assured her, seeing her worried look. "Nobody knows they're witches. Just like nobody knows where or who Wyatt is..."  
  
"So—everybody's pretty much living in fear? Oh boy, how fun! Let's go!" Paige said sarcastically.  
  
"Hey, you got yourself into this," Brian snapped. "You can go home at any time."  
  
"Oh yeah? What do you propose I do, clunk my shoes together saying 'there's no place like home' till I puke?" Paige sighed. "But I wanna go, still...it's just...the twins..."  
  
"This future will be changed," said Piper firmly.  
  
"Well, if there are no more interruptions..." Brian glared at Paige. "Then we'll be on our way. Hold on tight."  
  
The room swam in front of their eyes and six kids appeared; two sleeping soundly on the couch, two eating breakfast, and two about to leave. Prue and a man with jet-black hair stood by a stove that appeared to have been installed in the main room of the P3 for convenience since nobody danced there anymore. Prue was flipping eggs.  
  
"See you guys later," she called as Chris and Bianca left.  
  
"Bye Aunt Prue!"  
  
"Prue can't see you in this time," Brian said quickly. "Chris and Bianca are in high school, the twins are in middle school, and Bindle and Bailey are in elementary."  
  
"Can we go with them?" asked Piper, indicating Chris and Bianca.  
  
"Uh, sure—just a moment." He touched both of their shoulders and a blue light connected between them. He did the same with Phoebe and Paige. "This enables you to speed through time and speed yourselves to keep up with them so you can all split up," he explained. "Come back with them."  
  
"Right." Piper and Leo followed Chris and Bianca, disappearing with a ZIP! noise.  
  
Paige ended up waiting for the twins to leave and she followed them. Phoebe waited even longer, not sure quite what to follow; little Prue, her daughter, was dead and there was no one left. She watched her older sister cooking with a slight grin. Prue was usually known for burning things on the stove and occasionally almost setting the house on fire, so it was odd seeing her succeed in making decent food.  
  
Once Bindle and Bailey were awake, she decided that she'd probably rather follow them than hang around and watch Prue and Mark do...well, whatever married couples do while they're alone...  
  
"Today's sharing day!" Bindle exclaimed, about six years old now, as they walked out onto the curb.  
  
"What did you bring?" asked an eight-year-old Bailey.  
  
"My kaleidoscope. Isn't it cool?" She stuffed her hand into her book bag, retrieving a mini McDonald's toy and sticking it up to her eye. They stopped at what was apparently the bus stop and met about four other kids. Bindle started talking to a girl with blonde hair and Bailey talked to what looked like the other girl's brother.  
  
"Did you get that new action figure?" asked Bailey's friend.  
  
"Nah, my mom said we could get it later since we were vanquish—vanquishing, um, the bugs...you know how pesky those darn beetles can get!" He laughed nervously but his friend didn't suspect anything and nodded his head.  
  
"You brought a FROG!?" Bindle exclaimed. "Ew, Carly, that's SO disgusting—but so COOL! What will Mrs. Rika say when you bring THAT to sharing?"  
  
Phoebe grinned in amusement but knew that she ought to speed up unless she was going to be stuck here forever. She zipped through time again until they were all in class; then quickly decided that the science of the human body wasn't as interesting as it seemed decades ago when she was their age and moved on to their recess.  
  
The brother and sister walked off to a secluded part of the field, muttering and giggling under their breath. Suddenly Bailey's face turned dark and stern.  
  
"They're hiding something from us, I know it, Bindle. You hear them...every night, Chris gets up and scribbles in that notebook of his, and every night Bianca badgers him until he goes back to sleep. Why do you think he's up all the time?"  
  
Bindle thought for a moment. "The first time we met them, two years ago...it's hard for me to remember, Bail, but I'm thinking...Brian—Brian said we were being dropped off so they could look for Wyatt, Chris' older brother! Do you think he's lost?"  
  
"I bet that's what happened!" Bailey exclaimed, still whispering. He beamed with pride to their conclusion. "He got lost or something, maybe a demon captured him—and now Chris and Bianca want to find him!"  
  
"We can help!" Bindle said excitedly.  
  
"Why don't they just use the tracking spell? I know it by heart," he said pompously, puffing out his chest. "Hm...what was it? Oh —" He recited the spell and they waited. A bright blue light erupted in the shadowy corner of the recess field. Wyatt appeared, cursing to himself and madly flailing his limbs in an attempt to block the spell.  
  
He looked around and saw the two of them.  
  
"Who are you?" he asked sharply.  
  
"Bindle and Bailey," Bindle told him as a-matter-of-factly, "Bindle and Bailey Sanders."  
  
"Sanders...you're not part of the Wicca circle...you're not witches...who summoned me?" he demanded.  
  
Bailey shrugged. "What does 'summon' mean?"  
  
"Damn it." Bindle opened her mouth to gasp, but thought the better of it.  
  
"You're not who we thought you were," Bailey accused. "Our cousin wouldn't be related to a bad man! You must be a—a—a criminal with magic powers! Like the one on TV that they're trying to capture...the one that's killing people all the time that they haven't found the name of..."  
  
Phoebe knew at once that Wyatt WAS the criminal, but hadn't been captured because he'd been hiding in the Underworld. She yearned to shriek at the pair of them "RUN!" but knew it would make no difference what she said or did. Instead, she merely watched with a feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach.  
  
"I...I can't risk exposure...they'll find me...Come, you petty mortals," he commanded. He grabbed them both by the hair and shimmered away.  
  
"NO!" Phoebe screamed, bursting into frustrated tears. "WYATT, BRING THEM BACK!"  
  
((()))  
  
A/N—Next we'll show Col-Mel with Paige and then, finally, Bianca-Chris with Piper and Leo...and then the whole kidnap crap...yah. R&R or I shall use my demon power of possession upon you—MWAHAHA!! 


	19. School Day

Disclaimer: I still don't own anything—so sue me!  
  
((()))  
  
"You owe me five dollars and you know it, Col. Give it to me!"  
  
Colin shook his head with a grin plastered to his face. "I don't know what you're talking about, sis. Maybe your memory's on the fritz."  
  
"Uh, Col? The payphone, the soda machine, your lunch? Ring any bells?"  
  
"Nope—ack, there goes the bus!" Colin screamed. The two of them flailed their arms at the bus in a desperate attempt to catch their attention. "WAIT FOR US! HEY, C'MON!"  
  
They stopped running for a moment to regain their breath. "We're—so—dead," Mel gasped. "We're gonna be late!" She started to run towards the school but Colin stopped her.  
  
"Dude, we can just orb," Colin laughed.  
  
"Col...you know what Aunt Prue said. With Wyatt all around and magic revealed, anybody could see us and connect us with him."  
  
"They don't even know who Wyatt is! He's still the nameless villain or something. Just this once...it's not really personal gain since we don't give a crap about school anyway..."  
  
"Whaddaya mean 'we'?"  
  
"Stop being such a nerd and just orb already!" Colin orbed away and Paige, standing next to them, couldn't help but laugh at the disgusted look on Mel's face.  
  
"Aw...bonehead." She looked as if she was going to walk to school then shook her head. "He's gotta point..." She shrugged and orbed after him. Paige followed, ending up in an empty stall in the girls' bathroom.  
  
Just then the first bell rang. Mel smiled a little to herself. "Just in time, I guess..."  
  
Paige fast-forwarded to their third period, seeing that they were making an awfully big mess with watercolors. She zipped through again to lunch; perhaps this would be more interesting. Mel and Colin sat at a table with a bunch of other kids. They were obviously in the more popular crowd of the school, because it seemed that everyone wanted to be around them.  
  
"You missed the bus again, Mel?" asked one of Mel's friends, giggling.  
  
"It was sooo Colin's fault!" she whined.  
  
"You did WHAT with the teacher's grade book?"  
  
Colin's friend clapped a hand to Colin's mouth, shushing him. "Shhh, I don't want anyone to find out!!"  
  
Paige laughed again; her kids were growing up to be pretty funny and good- natured. She sat there, invisibly watching, until Mel abruptly stood up and grabbed Colin's arm. "Woops, forgot something in my locker...Col, come with me..."  
  
"What is it?" asked Colin as she lead them outside.  
  
"Bindle and Bailey," she explained. "I don't know, but something's not right."  
  
"We can't do anything about it. They probably just got detention again—no biggie."  
  
"I hope you're right..."  
  
((()))  
  
"It's been two years, Bianca," Chris complained, "TWO YEARS. We can't just give up! You heard the news yesterday, didn't you? Five people dead, smoldered to ash for no apparent reason—and if you checked a little more closely, they were all a part of the Rebellion. We are losing recruits faster than ever before!"  
  
They walked into an alley where they could talk unheard.  
  
"That's not a reason to stay up every night trying to figure out a way to 'save him'," said Bianca. "He can't be saved. He's evil and that's that. Besides, Chris, you have to realize...we're just kids. The other members of the Rebellion can handle it. They're much more experienced—"  
  
"But they don't know Wyatt like I do!"  
  
"I know, Chris, but we need you to be able to stay awake," Bianca joked ruefully. "Honestly, you have to sleep sometime—"  
  
"That would be giving up. That's what Wyatt wants. He wants us to shrug it off indifference until we're all killed! What are you going to do when the Rebellions are the last ones left? What are you going to say when Wyatt has killed off more innocents than we can spare?"  
  
"Don't talk like that! We'll get it under control eventually, I promise..."  
  
"How long are we going to have it under control?" He took a deep breath and softened his voice. "I don't want to lose anyone else. You saw what happened to Prue and our parents. I'm sure that Leo's disappearance had SOMETHING to do with it, too! I just want to know that for one day in our lives we can go to school and come back home like we used to, without worrying that our own flesh and blood are going to murder us in our sleep."  
  
"We're not going to lose anyone," said Bianca firmly. "Like you said, it's been two years and he's laid off of us. What makes you think he'll kill us all now?"  
  
"He's biding his time. Bianca, he's my brother...there are just some things I've known since we were really little, and one of those things I know is that he'll never give up. He'll fight until every last one of us is dead."  
  
Bianca sniffled slightly at these words. "Let's just...get to school on time for once." She gave him a quick kiss and they hurried out of the alley, walking quickly for about three blocks. They rounded a corner and a high school came into view—  
  
RING!  
  
"Ugh!" said Bianca. Their faces fell (A/N—you guys all remember Drew's exasperated we're-not-getting-anywhere look that he gave the sisters when they wouldn't listen, right? That's the look he's using now!!!).  
  
"So much for being on time," Chris groaned. He turned to Bianca. "See ya at lunch."  
  
They turned in opposite directions and fled to the school building before the custodian locked the doors. Piper and Leo followed Chris into what seemed like math class. Chris, however, was staring off into space and apparently deep in thought.  
  
"Chris, could you tell me the answer to problem number three on the homework last night?" asked the strict-looking teacher in the front of the room.  
  
Chris looked up, eyes focused on her and panic-stricken. He recovered quickly, though. "Uh...3x squared times 4a cubed...?"  
  
"Correct."  
  
He breathed an inward sigh of relief.  
  
Piper turned to Leo. "He's thinking of Wyatt," she said worriedly. "Look at him...he looks dead-tired and way too thin for his age. Why's Bianca the only one noticing?"  
  
"There are six kids in that family now, and only Prue and Mark to handle them..."  
  
"Let's just fast-forward."  
  
"Sure."  
  
ZIP! They went to Chris' lunch. He and Bianca sat in a secluded table far away from everyone else, talking in low whispers. Bianca seemed engaged in her food, but Chris was merely scooting the food around his tray with his fork, too busy talking.  
  
"I was in the middle of science and I swear, I felt this lurch in my stomach. That only happens when one of the younger kids..."  
  
"Chris, stop worrying and eat something. There's nothing wrong. You're neurotic."  
  
Piper grinned. "She's got that right..."  
  
"Bianca, seriously! What if —"  
  
"Eat," she ordered.  
  
"I'm not hungry, I want to know what's wrong."  
  
"Nothing's — CHRIS!"  
  
A blue light surrounded him. "I'm—I'm being summoned to Wyatt!" he exclaimed. He desperately tried to fight back. Bianca grabbed his sleeve, looking around quickly to make sure no one saw, and shimmered away with him to the P3. Piper and Leo followed.  
  
"What's wrong?" demanded Prue upon their arrival.  
  
Chris couldn't respond; he cried out, still trying to remain where he was and clutching onto the couch.  
  
"He's being summoned by Wyatt!" Bianca said breathlessly.  
  
The blue lights stopped and Chris collapsed to the floor in exhaustion.  
  
"He...he stopped a summoning spell," said Bianca in amazement. "I've never heard of anyone doing that before..."  
  
"Yeah, but how long will it last?" asked Prue.  
  
"Something tells me that it isn't going to get much better around here," said Piper, walking closer to Leo for comfort.  
  
A/N—I lied. I've updated...but it might still be a while till the next one. I might respond to the reviews in the next chappie if I can spare the time...I WILL do it eventually, I've just been kinda putting it off...don't hurt me!  
  
R&R!!  
  
Drew ROX!!!  
  
Oh, and if this is in any way confusing to you, feel free to mention so in my review. 


	20. Forced Reunions

> Disclaimer: I, sadly, shall never own Charmed, unless the producers take my many death threats to a literal level. 
>
>> Phoebe sighed in relief; at least Wyatt hadn't decided to hurt the kids yet. Bindle and Bailey were in a crystal cage, innocently playing a hand game with each other and obviously oblivious to what was going on around them. Wyatt paced in front of them, a dozen demons at his kneeling at his feet.  
  
"Leave me," he ordered to the demons. "Come when I summon you once more."  
  
The demons all blinked and shimmered away on his command. Wyatt stroked his chin, deep in thought, with a frustrated look on his face. He turned to Bindle and Bailey.  
  
"What are your names?" he demanded.  
  
"We already told you, meanie," Bindle replied impatiently. "My name's Bindle and his name is Bailey. What's yours?"  
  
"Don't be worrying your little heads about that, now...Do you know how I ended up in...wherever we were?"  
  
"Yeah. Bailey used a tracking spell to find our cousin, Wyatt, but we got you instead."  
  
"Wait...you know my name?"  
  
"You're WYATT?" Bailey exclaimed.  
  
"Yes I am...but how could you be my—my cousins? Who is your mother? I'm most certain that all of the Charmed Ones are dead."  
  
"You were the one that killed them!" Bailey accused. "You're EVIL!"  
  
Wyatt turned his back on them for a moment, agitated. A smirk appeared across his face. He turned back to them with a hurt, sorrowful look. "I was framed, Bailey, don't you see? I never meant to kill my own family. The evil demons...they made me...they possessed me..."  
  
"LIAR!" Bindle shrieked in her little high-pitched voice.   
  
"Oh, but you see, Bindle? That's what they thought. They wouldn't accept me, they wouldn't take me back once they thought I was responsible. I'm innocent...I've been hiding so they wouldn't hurt me...All I wanted was to come back to my family..."  
  
"Then why did you kill all those innocents?" Bindle screeched, tears running down her cheeks.  
  
"I didn't!" Wyatt lied. "It was someone else—a—a shape-shifter, that's it. It took on my form and uh...terrorized people, pretending to be me."  
  
Bindle and Bailey considered this. "Are...you sure?"  
  
"I'm positive," said Wyatt, lips curling into a grin. He knocked the crystal away from the cage, breaking it. "Come here, COUSINS." He swooped them into a hug (or as close as a villain can get to hugging) and Bindle and Bailey hugged him back.  
  
Wyatt broke away first. "So...will you two help me?" he asked.  
  
Bindle nodded. "Okay."  
  
"Now, first, tell me...who are your parents?"  
  
"Our mommy's name is Prue and our daddy's name is Mark," Bailey responded.  
  
Wyatt's face turned to one of shock, but he quickly recovered. "Is your mother a whitelighter? What's her maiden name?"  
  
"Uh..." Bindle thought for a moment. "If whitelighters can orb, then yes. And her last name is Halliwell, like Chris' and the twins."  
  
"_THEY'RE STILL ALIVE!?_" He boomed, appearing angry. The children leapt back and Wyatt quickly changed from furious to "relieved." "Oh, I'm so glad to hear it..." he lied. "I thought the assassins...never mind." He cleared his throat. "So...if you're going to help me, I'll give you some new powers. They may seem demonic, but they're actually pretty cool!"  
  
"Okay!" The two of them exclaimed.  
  
Bindle stopped following Wyatt. "Wait...what'll we do with them?"  
  
"I'm going to summon the rest of the family, starting with Chris," he explained. "I'm going to...uh...try and get him on our side, too. If they don't come on our side, that means that they're possessed to, so we have to beat the evil out of them by torture. Then the demon will go away," he said skeptically, obviously making it up as he went along.  
  
"They won't be hurt, right?" asked Bailey.  
  
"Of course not!" exclaimed Wyatt. "They'll be perfectly fine. Now, here's the potion. Drink up," he said cheerfully, handing them the vials and watching them drink.  
  
((()))  
  
"Let's just go back to class," said Colin.  
  
"No, I'm _serious_..."  
  
Just then, a whitelighter—Brian—orbed in out of nowhere. "Come on," he commanded. "There's been a shift of balance. We think that Wyatt has captured Bindle and Bailey and given them powers...you have to go to the P3, NOW."  
  
"But we need to check out of school—" Mel protested.  
  
"Taken care of," he assured Mel, grinning and holding up a fake ID. He orbed them out of the school and back into the remains of the old restaurant, where they found Chris buckled to the ground trying to shake off a spell.  
  
"It's a summoning spell," Brian explained, "Wyatt's put it on him. He kidnapped the littler ones earlier, we don't know why...but he's given them powers. We don't think he's hurt them—he's most likely turned them."  
  
"No!" Mel gasped.  
  
With a last blindingly bright flash of blue, Chris disappeared from the P3.  
  
"Damn it, come back!" Bianca cried out. She looked as if she might cry but she held it in. "He was right, he was _right_...Why didn't I listen? They're gone, _gone_..."  
  
Mel went over to Bianca and gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze. "It wasn't your fault, Bi. There was nothing that we could've done." She gave Colin a sharp I-told-you-so glare before turning to everyone else in the room. "We have to get them back," she said firmly. "What can we do?"  
  
"That's what I'm trying to figure out," said future Brian. "It seems that, like I said, Bindle and Bailey had been kidnapped."  
  
"_What?!_" Prue screamed.  
  
"Calm down, Prue. They're okay, otherwise I wouldn't be able to sense them. You can sense them too—we just can't orb. Their kidnapper—Wyatt, most likely—put an anti-orbing spell of some kind wherever they are. I think...he's turned them."  
  
"Not my babies, he can't turn them..." Prue sobbed. Mark made a desperate attempt to comfort her though he was too shaken to do so properly.  
  
"He can manipulate them. You know how clever Wyatt can be. They might not know right from wrong, after all, they never met Wyatt—"  
  
"Exactly what I've been thinking!" Mel exclaimed out of nowhere. "How the hell does he know about Bindle and Bailey if he never met them? He never knew about them because we only first met them the day that Brian dropped them on us after Wyatt got loose!"  
  
"There must have been another way he found out," said Colin darkly.  
  
((()))  
  
Bindle and Bailey watched in awe as Chris appeared in the corner, gasping for breath. Wyatt grinned.  
  
"So, little brother; have you given up yet? Will you join me?"  
  
"Never," Chris spat, getting to his feet shakily.  
  
"What was that?"  
  
"I said I'd never join you, you bastard!"
>> 
>> Wyatt grinned. "Then..." He formed a fireball in his hands and nodded at Bindle and Bailey for the cue. "...suffer the consequences."
>> 
>> BAM!


	21. His Revenge

Disclaimer: I still don't own anything, I regretfully say...hm...you never know...I got it! All the wannabe Charmed owners can start striking outside the Charmed set until Brian Kern's ears bleed and he HAS to give it up! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!  
  
(((())))  
  
The three energy balls emitted from Bindle, Bailey, and Wyatt made impact with Chris before he could lift his head to see what was happening. He bit back his tongue to keep from crying out and looked mournfully at the two children. "Bindle...Bailey...how could you?" he managed to croak, clutching at his side where most of the damage had been done. Chris lifted up his had and telekinetically threw Wyatt at a wall, but left his cousins unharmed in his reluctance to hurt them.  
  
"You'll pay for that, Chris," Wyatt growled, jumping to his feet. He motioned once more to Bindle and Bailey. "The demon's still in him. Attack."  
  
They nodded, sending out three more balls.  
  
"Had enough yet, Chris? Will you join me now?"  
  
"No," he moaned. "No..."  
  
"What was that?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Again!" he ordered.  
  
And so it went, on and on, energy ball after energy ball, for a long, tormenting hour. Phoebe, Piper, and Leo watched, horrified, as Chris suffered. Piper buried her face into Leo's shirt to shield her eyes and muffle her ears from the blasts and cries as Leo watched in horror, mouth agape. Phoebe held her head in her hands from the emotional crush that was screaming in her head from them.  
  
Eventually Chris was unconscious, so it seemed. Wyatt went up to him, checking for a pulse just in case. "Hm...his pulse is slow, but I'm fairly certain he'll live. If he doesn't, at least her got what he deserved...the demon, I mean," he added quickly upon the skeptical looks of Bindle and Bailey.  
  
"I'm hungry," Bindle whined.  
  
"Me too!"  
  
Wyatt rolled his eyes. "Minions!" he called. The demons returned. "Bring lunch," he said impatiently, waving them off with his hand.  
  
"And cut off the crust on the sandwiches!"  
  
Wyatt groaned. "Yes, yes, and cut the crust off the sandwiches." The demons gave him a quizzical look at the oddities of his order. "I said bring them lunch, don't look at me like that!" he snapped.  
  
Bindle curiously bent down to survey what was left of Chris. He had dozens of scattered wounds around his body, either burning or bleeding profusely. His breath was shallow and even in his sleep he was cringing in pain.  
  
"Are you sure we're not hurting the real Chris?" she asked.  
  
"Certain," Wyatt responded. The demon shimmered in with some food. "Now, let's eat."  
  
((()))  
  
Future Brian was going mad with rage. "They're hurting him, I can feel it!" he shouted. "I just might KILL Wyatt with my own bare hands!"  
  
Rather than calming down the room, though, it only caused Bianca to sob fresh tears and Prue to bang her fist on the bar counter in frustration. Colin and Mel looked rather frightened watching the uproar of Brian's pacing and cussing, their father's even LOUDER cussing, and Bianca's wails.  
  
Paige stood too, watching intently. "What's happening?" she wondered aloud. "Where are Piper and Phoebe and Leo?"  
  
Just then blue sparks began to flare at Colin's and Mel's feet. "Holy shit!" Colin screamed.  
  
Mel tried to give him a glare but apparently they had no time to do so. They were summoned...directly to Wyatt.  
  
Paige followed.  
  
((()))  
  
"Colin, Mel, how nice of you to join us," said Wyatt in a sickly-sweet voice.  
  
The twins shook on the spot, quite rattled by the sudden change of scenery. Colin took a step forward and tripped on the limp, unmoving Chris. Chris cried out in agony.  
  
"Chris!" Mel gasped. She bent down to his level, shaking him. "Chris, wake up!!" She whipped around to face Wyatt. "What have you done!? What in the BLOODY HELL have you DONE!? You sick, deranged, freakish, WRONG—"  
  
Wyatt pointed at her. "You are in no position to be sassing me, you know. I have power beyond your wildest dreams..."  
  
"Enough power to kill all those innocents!" Mel cried out. She desperately looked over at Bindle and Bailey. "You guys, he's lying...trust me...please..."  
  
"But..." Bailey protested.  
  
"I am not lying!" Wyatt denied.  
  
"You," Colin raged, coming closer to them. "After all this time, you don't even have the right to PRETEND to be good, you screw-up! Bindle, Bailey, get the hell away from him! You always wanted to be one of the big kids and know about the Rebellion—this is your chance! Step away from him, come over to us, and I promise...I SWEAR...you'll never, ever be excluded again."  
  
The two children looked timidly between Wyatt and Colin. Bindle moved over to Colin, shaking visibly in fear. Bailey remained where he was.  
  
"Ha," said Colin triumphantly. He ruffled Bindle's hair. "At least one of you is smart."  
  
"I DON'T NEED YOU!" Wyatt boomed. He raised his hand.  
  
"NO!" Mel shrieked.  
  
BAM!  
  
Bindle, just like Prue did two years ago, was blasted into ash.  
  
"BINDLE!" Bailey cried, bawling. "What did you do to her? You're a bad man, you killed Bindle...you killed her..." He walked over to Mel, who embraced him into a tight-knit hug.  
  
"It'll be alright, Bailey, it'll be—"  
  
"Run," Chris croaked. "Run, Mel...Run..."  
  
"What?"  
  
BAM!  
  
They were smoldered into dust. Colin stared, wide-eyed in horror, at what remained of cousins and sister. Tears welled up into his eyes and he fell to his knees.  
  
"Give up?" asked Wyatt jeeringly.  
  
"No..." Colin whispered skeptically.  
  
Wyatt formed an energy ball in his hands. "Are you sure?"  
  
Colin looked up into Wyatt's eyes, his face cold, blank, and emotionless, almost like it was when he was possessed...only more so. "Kill me, Wyatt," he said simply. "Just remember all the chances we gave you when you regret this someday."  
  
"I sure won't." Wyatt grinned.  
  
Colin got his wish of death in less than an instant.  
  
Wyatt turned away, kicking the piles of ash out of his path as he walked towards Chris.  
  
"What?" asked Chris, tears streaming down his face. "You wanna kill me too?"  
  
"I can't afford to do so," Wyatt said regretfully. "I need you, Chris. Together we could change the world, but apart..." He sighed heavily. "Apart, we all have our limits and barriers."  
  
"That hasn't stopped you."  
  
"Ah, but yes, it has...You have no idea...Those whitelighters—Ha—those foolish whitelighters thought that they could overcome me. Say, you ever wondered what happened to dear old dad?"  
  
Chris didn't respond.  
  
"He's here. Do you...wish to see him?"  
  
Chris remained silent, looking towards the ground and clutching at the relentless pain in his side.  
  
Wyatt grinned. "Something told me you wouldn't want to...after all, no spell can break what I've done to him now..."  
  
"You've killed him?!"  
  
"Oh no, Chris...much, much worse. Remember the little spell I put him under? The one you broke? That's not going to happen again. He's better than before. New powers, new outlook on life, new mission...and even love won't help you find a way to save him. You're only other choice would be to kill him."  
  
"What have you done?" he whispered, losing his voice as he slipped in and out of consciousness.  
  
"You'll see for yourself in time, but for now...I'm willing to give you a little more time to make up your mind. Join me or don't. I'll summon you later for my answer, and if it isn't suitable to my liking..." He shrugged, waved his had at Chris, and watched his bloody, mangled brother disappear.  
  
(((())))  
  
Please R&R for my mental sanity!!! Oh, and I'm coming back soon, so the chapters should be finished faster. Sorry for the slow down and everything, but don't worry, I'm picking up the pace...VROOOOOOOOOM.  
  
Lol. 


	22. Her Betrayal

Disclaimer: I still don't own Charmed or Drew Fuller...Hey, you know that episode where the evil demon dude possesses Prue into marrying him? Can peoples do that with Drew Fuller? Oooo, me try first!!!  
  
Piper and Leo went after Chris, and, to their surprise, ended right back up into the P3. Chris sputtered and gasped for breath as he hit the floor with a sickening crunch from about ten feet in the air. He moaned.  
  
"Chris, you're back—damn it, what happened?!" Bianca ran up to him. "Prue, Prue, Prue—"  
  
"I see him, I got it," Prue said shakily, trying to calm her "niece" down. She bent over and began to heal him. He sat up but found he was too weak to stand. "Where were you?" she asked gently. "Where are the others?"  
  
Chris' eyes welled up with tears. "I couldn't save them. It's my fault."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"They're dead," he choked. "It's all my fault. I couldn't protect them...Wyatt—Wyatt killed them all right in front of me, I—I couldn't do...anything..." He buried his head in his knees in sorrow and muffled his sobs. "I'm sorry..."  
  
"They're really...dead?" Bianca whispered. Prue wrapped Bianca and Chris into a hug and Mark joined them. The four of them, the last survivors of the Halliwell line, sobbed for their lost ones.  
  
"I didn't think I'd lose my children when they were so young," Mark cried. "Bindle...Bailey...they're gone..."  
  
"And the twins..."  
  
The four intruders from the past stood by the bar counter, rooted to the spot. Piper was clinging inseparably (and maybe uncomfortably on Leo's part) to Leo's arm and sobbing; Phoebe was .rubbing her temples and crying softly; Paige was staring straight ahead, expression matching Phoebe's.  
  
"Maybe we shouldn't have come here," Piper said quietly.  
  
"No," Leo contradicted. "We needed to know this. Now we can understand."  
  
They all pulled away from each other a half hour or so later. "It wasn't your fault, Chris...there was nothing you could've done," said Prue.  
  
Chris turned his head the other way and didn't say anything in response. "I'm just...gonna do my homework...."  
  
Prue nodded.  
  
"Get to bed tonight early Chris. You ought to start sleeping...especially after Wyatt..." The rest went without saying. They were all in bed by ten o'clock, either having cried themselves to sleep or falling back onto the mattresses in exhaustion.  
  
Phoebe wordlessly raised her right hand and sped time up to the next morning.  
  
Prue and Mark were still asleep. Chris stood at the doorway, staring at the floor and waiting for Bianca, who was carelessly and recklessly shoving books into her book bag. Chris pretended not to notice her frown as they walked out the door.  
  
Chris started to walk off to the right of the P3 but Bianca pulled him to the left.  
  
"What—?"  
  
"Don't ask, just follow," she snapped. Leo and the sisters had a hard time keeping up to them at the pace Bianca was pulling Chris. Finally she stopped abruptly and shoved him deep into an alley.  
  
"We can't do this any longer," she said harshly, gritting her teeth.  
  
"What do you mean?" asked Chris, struggling to get out of her firm grasp on his arm.  
  
"Wyatt. We can't fight him any longer." Bianca released him and turned her back to where he stood. "There's no way. We've lost everyone, Chris..." She faced him once more. "If we join Wyatt, we'll be powerful enough to please him. He'll keep us alive. It's the only way that we can stay together."  
  
Chris looked at her pleadingly. "Bianca...what's happened to you?"  
  
"Reality's happened to me. I can see clearly now Chris. Some things are meant to be and joining Wyatt is definitely one of them."  
  
"You...you can't do this!" Chris yelled. "Look at all we fought for! You've got it all wrong—"  
  
"Don't tell me what we're doing wrong, we've lost everything doing what we thought was right—"  
  
"Because we ARE right! Do you really want to kill innocents? Do you really want to be an over-controlling power-hungry screw that ENJOYS watching other people SUFFER!? What the hell do you would think that the ones we lost would say after they fought it until the end?"  
  
"MY mother would be pleased, remember?" said Bianca coldly.  
  
"Bianca...I love you. Don't do this," Chris begged.  
  
"It's already been decided. I'm leaving. If you don't join me...this may be the last time I see you..." She tried to lean in to kiss him but Chris orbed away and reappeared behind her.  
  
"Have it your way—I HOPE I never see you again!" He screamed. "JUST LEAVE! DON'T COME BACK!"  
  
"I'll come back for you, Chris, when you finally realize that there is no escape..." She shimmered away.  
  
Chris stood for a moment, shaking with rage, fists balled by his side. He screamed in fury and kicked the alley wall. "I'LL KILL YOU, WYATT!" He orbed away.  
  
"I'm gonna go with Piper and uh...follow Chris. Alone," he added quickly.  
  
Phoebe nodded. "C'mon Paige," she said, grabbing her sister's arm, "let's go back to the P3..."  
  
((()))  
  
"What do you mean Chris and Bianca didn't come into school today?" Prue asked, face etched with worry as she shifted the phone on her shoulder. "Uh- huh. Okay. I see...They didn't tell me about being tardy all those days...No, they aren't the type to cut class, I know that they're very diligent about their schoolwork...Yes, I'll be sure to call you if they come back...Right. Thank you. I'll, uh, call their cell phone if they come back. Yes. I'm sure they will. Good-bye."  
  
She slammed down the phone. "CHRISTOPER PERRY HALLIWELL!! BIANCA LYNN (a/n—her mom's name if anyone remembers)!! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?!"  
  
Mark stood up. "I...Prue, I have this feeling that they're not coming back."  
  
She sunk to the floor. "Do you think...Wyatt got them?" she sobbed.  
  
Mark didn't answer—they were frozen.  
  
"Chris," Paige muttered.  
  
((()))  
  
Chris was at the Golden Gate Bridge, as Leo suspected. Time all around them was frozen. Cars stopped; seagulls hovered in midair, motionless; the waves themselves didn't continue to splash. Chris was on the highest pillar, thrashing at the poles with his fists and accomplishing nothing but gaining very bloody knuckles.  
  
But he kept at it.  
  
His face was contorted in pain and anger and betrayal, but he didn't cry. It was if all of his tears had been spent and he couldn't take it anymore.  
  
"I'll never join Wyatt, Bianca or no Bianca," he screamed. "I'm not going back to the P3. I can't. I'm sorry, Aunt Prue..."  
  
Past Brian orbed in behind them. "We're gonna have to skip about a month since nothing exactly eventful will happen in them and we don't want you to be here forever. Chris has been living on the streets in this month, avoiding Prue, Mark, and...generally the whole family; or what's left of it. He's been vanquishing demon after demon and even the Rebellion's lost track of him since he's got a mindset on stopping Wyatt himself. You're not going to like what you see."  
  
Piper looked over at her son. "What could be worse than this?"  
  
"Don't jinx it." Brian sighed. "Paige and Phoebe are already there. They'll meet you...take my hand."  
  
They orbed into an alley.  
  
"I don't see Chris," was the first thing Piper was able to say.  
  
"Look down," said Phoebe, tears in her eyes.  
  
Piper screamed.  
  
((()))  
  
A/N—So, how do you like it? Sorry it's been so long. I gotta give the comp to my evil brother cuz he's bugging the crap outta me, so, uh....bye. 


	23. Finding Gideon

Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed. I don't own Drew Fuller. I don't even own my thoughts...those all belong to Drew...I think about him day and night...  
  
Okay, here's the story before I scare you all:  
  
((()))  
  
"What happened to him?" Piper shrieked.  
  
"Did you listen to a word I just said?" Brian snapped in impatience, looking away from Chris himself. "He messed with demons and...paid the price."  
  
"Kinda like when Piper went nuts after losing Prue," said Leo.  
  
The looked down at Chris. A month had indeed changed a lot—there was a deep wound in his shoulder and several smaller ones across his chest that were bleeding freely through his thin t-shirt. He was shivering and appeared to have lost a lot of weight and there were deep, tired circles under his eyes. His eyes were closed but he seemed to be awake, but miserable. (A/N—Sorry Charmed Melinda Halliwell, I had to kill him again. Got any bandages? And no, Drew's still mine!!)  
  
"Yeah, but Chris is doing it out of grief and for the innocents he's trying to save. But it seems that the grief has consumed him to a whole other level..."  
  
"Why is this particular time momentous?" Paige asked Brian.  
  
"Well..."  
  
A flurry of blue orbs appeared smack in front of Piper's nose. She shrieked and jumped back, but was entirely relieved when she saw future Leo. "I thought he was missing!" she exclaimed.  
  
"Chris!" future Leo gasped in concern. "Oh my god..." He healed him in an instant and Chris woke up groggily.  
  
"Am I dead?" he asked blankly upon seeing Leo.  
  
"No you're not, buddy, oh thank god I found you..." Leo gave wrapped him in a huge hug. "It's been so long...you've grown so much since I last saw you! I've missed you so much..."  
  
"Where have you been?" Chris asked shakily. "You never came back when we called..."  
  
Leo's face turned grim. "Wyatt captured me and several other whitelighters, including Andy and Sam. They're dead now, I just managed to escape right before he...never mind."  
  
"Right before he what?"  
  
"They were going to brainwash me, Chris, and send me out to kill you."  
  
Chris shivered.  
  
"Let's go somewhere warmer, it's cold out here...what are you doing all alone out here in the dead of winter?"  
  
"That's just it. Everybody's dead."  
  
"But Prue and Mark—"  
  
"Dead. Last week."  
  
"Gee, Brian, thanks for filling us in on that," Piper scoffed.  
  
"Sorry, I forgot...too much to remember..."  
  
"Chris...I'm so sorry..." future Leo trailed off. "I saw Bianca."  
  
"She's alive?" Chris asked hopefully. Something seemed to spark in his eyes but it quickly died away. "And still...evil?"  
  
"Yes. She's been sent out to...well, Wyatt wants her to kill you to pledge her allegiance. She came back with a pile of ashes, Chris, I was so afraid I'd lost you...but once I escaped I sensed you and you were still alive."  
  
"Thank you for coming back."  
  
"Nothing could stop me." As they walked out of the alley Leo lowered his voice again. "Is Bianca...under a spell? Is she being brainwashed as I was?"  
  
Chris scoffed. "No. She told me herself that joining Wyatt would be the only way to have a better future."  
  
"Oh. Well, I know the others are gone...we—Sam and Andy, that is—watched the four of them die in Wyatt's lair. We were invisible and in a way, stripped from our own bodies. We were more like spirits of ourselves. But Wyatt made a slipup and now I'm in one piece again...but Sam's and Andy's atoms didn't come together like mine did, probably because they're not elders..."  
  
"Where are we going to go?" Chris asked.  
  
Leo thought for a moment. "I would take you Up There, but that would be almost suicidal...Wyatt can track our orbs if we go all the way. And it doesn't look like anywhere on the mortal plane is exactly safe either. Let's try magic school, then..."  
  
"Wait—Is Gideon there?"  
  
"I'd expect he'd be busy with the elders right now since Wyatt's out there and everything. Why do you ask?"  
  
"I dunno. It just seemed that Wyatt never liked him very much, you know? Sometimes he'd rant about how—I'm just quoting here—Gideon was a backstabbing bastard that should stay out of other people's business. But then he stopped talking about him when I was thirteen or so. I thought that maybe Gideon would be one of the first to go when Wyatt came to power."  
  
"I just heard from Gideon right before I found you, so he's fine. I wonder why Wyatt...? Well, there are a lot of things I'm wondering about him right now."  
  
"Yeah..."  
  
"Well, we'll just go to the Magic School for now. I'll warn Gideon about Wyatt."  
  
They orbed up to the Magic School. Brian turned to the sisters and present- time Leo. "It's time for me to go," he announced, "go ahead and follow them."  
  
The four of them nodded and orbed to Magic School with Leo and Chris.  
  
"You stay in the library, alright kiddo? I'll tell Gideon about the situation at hand."  
  
Paige and Phoebe decided to follow future Leo into Gideon's office, where Leo knocked on the door.  
  
"Gideon? Are you in there?"  
  
The door swung open. "Leo—you're not—you're supposed to be missing!" Sigmund exclaimed. "What happened to you?"  
  
"Wyatt happened to me. I was captured. Where's Gideon?"  
  
"Right here, Leo," said Gideon. "I'm pleased to see that you're back finally. Now you can resume your responsibilities as an elder."  
  
Leo cleared his throat. "Not until I resume my duties as a father," he corrected.  
  
Gideon sighed. "Leo, you're entire family is dead with the exception of Wyatt. You can't stop Wyatt now, that's what the Rebellion is for. Just because you're his father doesn't mean that you can—"  
  
"No, I mean I need to be a father to my OTHER son."  
  
"Other son? Leo...Chris has been missing for a month, starting the day after his cousins were murdered. You won't find him. Not even the Rebellion has managed to track him back."  
  
"My son is right in the library as we speak if you really need proof, Gideon," said Leo. "He's been vanquishing demons and trying to stop Wyatt on his own."  
  
Gideon's eyes flashed. "No one can stop Wyatt," he stated.  
  
"I believe that Chris may be powerful enough to stop him," Leo said confidently.  
  
"Ah. I see...and how old is Chris now?"  
  
"Sixteen."  
  
"Hm. Well, you'd best be going with him...Wouldn't want to lose track of him again, now, would we?"  
  
Leo gave Gideon a strange look. "Okay, then, good-bye." He stood to leave. "Is there an...echo in here?"  
  
Gideon only smiled. "Just the walls vibrating the sound. It's for effect, really, since the room was rather spacious when the last elder occupied it...Good-bye, Leo."  
  
Once Leo was gone, Gideon to turned to Sigmund with a grave expression on his face. "Leo's right. Chris may be just as powerful as his twice-blessed brother, which means that he could take over just as easily as Wyatt did if he manages to stop him...Sigmund, find Chris a place to stay. We need him to be dead by morning."  
  
((()))  
  
Sigmund walked into the library. "Chris, we can let you stay in the nursery. It's not used anymore and it's where your mother stayed with you and Wyatt when she was pregnant. Come with me...Leo, you really don't have to come along, I can assure you that Chris is in safe hands," Sigmund assured future Leo when he began to follow.  
  
"Okay...Well, bye buddy, I'll check on you in the morning." Leo gave Chris a hug and they both departed through blue orbs.  
  
Phoebe and Paige rushed into the room to find Piper and Leo.  
  
"You will never believe what we just heard," Paige gasped.  
  
((()))  
  
A/N—God, this story is OVER 100 PAGES now! That's really creepy. I've never made a story THAT long before. Oh well. I love writing this fic.  
  
R&R, plz! I very much appreciate the many reviews! 


	24. Two Strikes

Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed, but I own EVERY LIMB of Drew Fuller!! In my dreams, at least. And I do dream whilst I am awake!  
  
((()))  
  
"What?" asked Piper urgently. "I'm warning you, I've seen enough bad stuff in one day and that's more than I can handle! If one more thing goes wrong—" She saw the looks on Phoebe's and Paige's faces and sighed. "Oh, just tell me."  
  
"We think that Gideon..." Phoebe gave Leo a sympathetic look, then continued. "We just heard Gideon say that Chris had to die because he was afraid that he'd be the next Wyatt once he stopped his brother. He's plotting to kill him tonight and future you is gone. There's no one to protect him..."  
  
"Wait," said Piper. "You heard Chris. Wyatt never liked Gideon, but then he just ignored him. Maybe he tried to kill Wyatt. Maybe..."  
  
Phoebe finished for her. "Maybe he's the reason Wyatt turned in the first place."  
  
Piper and Phoebe gulped and nodded in agreement and looked at the disbelieving Leo.  
  
Leo grimaced. "I can't believe that my mentor would..." He shook his head. "He's not going to succeed. Chris and Wyatt are alive. Future me will save him, he has to..."  
  
"I'm speeding it up," said Phoebe quickly to avoid contradicting Leo's hopes.  
  
((()))  
  
It was daybreak. Chris lay sprawled out on a couch in what used to be the nursery with a haunted expression on his face, probably in the midst of a nightmare. The sun (or the phony sun for Magic School) started to rise, sending shafts of light through the windows. Little did Chris know, there were two shadows, ready to kill him in an instant.  
  
On one end, Bianca, cloaked by a spell, held a quavering athame. She shook in hesitation. It'd been three hours since she arrived here after sensing Chris and she STILL hadn't managed to kill him. She watched the light reflect into the knife. Why couldn't she just stab him?  
  
On the other end was Gideon, using his invisibility and holding a sword. There was a hint of regret in his eyes, as if it pained him to do what was "right." He drew in a long, silent breath and got ready.  
  
Both weapons were held up, ready to strike—  
  
Chris yawned and sat up.  
  
The weapons were lowered.  
  
"Who's there?" he asked groggily. He looked around and shrugged. "Jus' had the weirdest dream 'bout Bianca and Gideon..." he trailed off with a shudder.  
  
Bianca put the athame in her pocket. She couldn't. She'd find another way...try to lie to him again...oh, but he said to bring the body...A tear ran down her cheek and she shimmered away.  
  
Gideon cursed under his breath and stashed away the sword, watching Chris get up and mumbling something about a drink of water. "He'll be back," he told himself, "he'll be back, waiting for Sigmund to come in." He grinned to himself.  
  
Piper was shielding her eyes with Leo's sleeve. "You can look now," said Phoebe. "Nobody struck. They backed out."  
  
Paige was biting her nails and Phoebe was inadvertently shaking. Leo seemed to be the only calm one of the bunch, still assured that his future self would save the day.  
  
Chris, though, did come back, still half-asleep and stumbling back to the couch. Gideon gulped and took out the sword again. "Forgive me, Chris," he whispered.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
He took the stab. Chris moaned in agony and clutched the wound in his stomach, coughing up blood.  
  
Gideon gave one last hard stare at Chris. "Nobody can die in Magic School." Chris disappeared in a flurry of blue orbs.  
  
Chris reappeared in an alley way with a face of pure shock. Gideon? No. He didn't understand! Why would Gideon want to stab him? He was in so much pain that it appeared to be beyond him.  
  
"Bianca...I never got—to say good-bye..."  
  
There were muffled sobs a couple feet away from him. "Who said that?" asked a frightened voice. It was a girl. She stepped out of the shadows.  
  
"Chris! No—but I—how'd you get stabbed if I didn't—Chris, say something!"  
  
"Bi—Bianca?"  
  
"It's me, Chris...I didn't...I couldn't hurt you, who did this?"  
  
He coughed up more blood. "Gideon. Don't worry, though...I think it's time for me to die...Look at all that we've fought so far...All the times we've escaped...It's my time."  
  
"No, it's not your time, Chris, keep fighting! We have to keep fighting!" She wept piteously. "You were the one who told me that. You told me to never give up! Chris, you have to hold on!" "It's been too long, Bianca. We all know that. I think that this...may be for the greater good. Like Gideon always said."  
  
"Gideon's a bastard!" Bianca cried, shaking him. "Chris, don't do this to me...don't do this!"  
  
"I love you, Bianca."  
  
"Then stay with me! We can still be together, Chris, just don't give up!"  
  
Chris' eyes glazed over and his labored gasps ceased.  
  
"Wake up, Chris...don't do this..." She cradled his head close. "I always thought that you'd join us...I didn't think that your love for the innocents would kill you..." She looked up at the sky, watery eyes and tear-streaked face wincing at the light of the sun. "You took my mother," she hissed, "and my aunts and my mom. You took my twin cousins, my sidekick cousin, and my baby cousins...and I tried to deal with it. I really did." She let out a sob. "I know I ran, but I can change...Just please, do this one thing...He doesn't deserve to die. He didn't run. He was always there for me, he protected me, he tried to protect everyone...He'll do great things, just save him...I need him. The world needs him!" She couldn't control it any longer. She just sobbed.  
  
"Chris can't die!" Piper screamed. "He can't, he's—he's alive in our time!"  
  
"I'm supposed to save him," Leo whispered. "That's my job. Why am I not there? Can't I sense his pain?"  
  
"Leo, honey..." Piper drew in closer to him. "It's not your fault."  
  
"I want to do something."  
  
"You can't. You know you can't. I'm sorry, Leo," soothed Piper.  
  
Bianca's crying suddenly came to a stop. "Leo," she whimpered shakily, "Leo's still alive. He escaped...LEO! LEO!" She shrieked. "LEO WYATT, COME DOWN HERE!" It began to rain. "LEO WYATT, YOUR SON IS DYING! GET THE HELL DOWN HERE, DAMMIT!"  
  
Leo orbed in. "Bianca, this is not funny. Not one bit. I'm going to report you if you don't—"  
  
"Shut the f--- (I'm not allowed to type that word!!) up and heal already!"  
  
"What do you—Holy shit, Chris!" He started to heal frantically. "You killed him, didn't you? I knew this would happen! I knew I shouldn't have let him out of my sight for a minute with all this danger! How could you do this?" Future Leo kept trying, but there was no familiar glow that radiated from his hands. He broke down in helpless sobs as Bianca had, holding Chris' body. "Wake up...Say something, buddy..."  
  
"I didn't kill him," Bianca denied, "but I will tell you that I tried. I couldn't. I still love him..."  
  
"Oh yeah? Then who killed him, Bianca?" Leo raged. Bianca remained silent, trembling at her knees. "Answer me!"  
  
"You won't believe me," she wailed.  
  
"Try me," Leo growled dangerously.  
  
"Gideon," she choked between uncontrollable weeping. "GIDEON KILLED CHRIS!"  
  
"You are the worst liar I've ever met!" Leo accused.  
  
"Listen to me! GIDEON KILLED CHRIS. I don't want it to be true either! I trusted the bastard! This morning we both tried to kill Chris, but I couldn't do it. I backed out, just like last time, hoping I could distract Wyatt with something else. I left, but I didn't know that it was Gideon standing by Chris! I thought it might be you, watching him sleep or something! I only realized someone else was there right before I shimmered so I didn't pay attention," she sobbed. "I didn't know it was Gideon standing there with a sword!"  
  
"Let me see for myself," he said, orbing away.  
  
He was back seconds later, pale in the face. "I saw...Gideon...blood all over his hands...and a sword...the blood—that was my son's blood!" he screamed.  
  
"There's nothing we can do," Bianca whispered, her voice seeming as distant as the wind—hollow and incoherent. "He's...gone."  
  
Just then a huge gust of wind came at them both, almost blowing them away. They held on desperately to the brick wall, just barely hear an anguished scream in the wind, followed by a message...  
  
"Daddy, help me..."  
  
"Chris!" Leo gasped.  
  
A/N—Hope you guys like it! I have a -cough cough- surprise in the next chappie. Heh. Keep reviewing, I luv all ur great comments!! 


	25. Little Chris

Disclaimer: I own myself and a few select other items, but I don't own Charmed...Can we buy Drew Fuller on Ebay? My friend said that Ebay had endless possibilities. Drew is a possibility! –my friend pops my dream balloon and brings me back to reality— Of course Drew isn't available on Ebay! We have to get rid of Sarah first! Who's with me?! MWAHAHA! Of course, though, he's mine once we're through.  
  
((()))  
  
"What was that?" Bianca whimpered.  
  
"It was Chris, I know it was him," said Leo, frantically looking around him. He looked back at the body. "But Chris is. . ."  
  
"Help!" the voice pleaded softly, a breeze of wind hitting them again.  
  
"If you heard it too, then I know I'm not crazy," said Bianca, standing up. "Chris!" she called, "Where are you?"  
  
The wind died down.  
  
"That doesn't help," she moaned. "Chris, um, send a gust of wind for 'yes' and no gust for 'no,' alright?" She paused. "Okay...are you okay?"  
  
No gust.  
  
"Do you know where you are?"  
  
Yet again, no gust.  
  
"Can you help us find you?"  
  
A gust of wind finally came at them.  
  
"Umm...." Bianca thought for a moment. "Are you dead? Er...Don't answer that. Are you...not in your body?" she asked lamely.  
  
A stronger, impatient gust came at them.  
  
"Alright, alright," said Bianca. "Hm...Can you try talking again through the wind?"  
  
An uncertain, hesitant breeze filled the room. "I'm not the Chris you know, Daddy," came the voice again.  
  
"That's not Chris," said Bianca. "Wait—well, it is Chris, but not the same voice! What the hell happened to you? You sound like you're going through some deranged voice-changing part or puberty."  
  
"Wait—did you call me 'daddy?'" He turned to Bianca. "The boys started calling me dad when he was nine. They couldn't possibly be...Wait, Chris, how old are you?"  
  
"Seven," said the feeble voice. "I'm scared."  
  
"This can't be good. Uh...I think a spell will work." She thought for a little while until the wind became restless and agitated. "Okay! Stop it already! Here we go." She took in a deep breath. "Don't hurt me if I screw this up...Take the lost soul to store away In his body where he should lay."  
  
Chris' body glowed bright red for a moment and the light began to shrink—along with Chris himself. A seven-year-old Chris stared up at them, looking quite astonished at his surroundings. Seeing a familiar face, he ran up to Leo.  
  
"Where are we, daddy?" he asked, voice shaking.  
  
"The future," Leo sighed. "Our future. You don't belong here, buddy...What's the last thing you remember?"  
  
Little Chris thought for a moment, then pouted. "Wyatt took the video game and I went to Aunt Phoebe to fix it but she couldn't so I went outside. I was on the swings and this huge gust of wind came at me and POOF—I WAS the wind. I dunno what happened." He stared at Bianca. "Who are you?"  
  
"Aw, Chris looked so cute when he was little!!" she gushed.  
  
"Uh..." Chris blushed. "Do I know you?"  
  
"I s'pose not. At least not in this time."  
  
"Look, we have to focus on getting back the REAL Chris and getting YOU back to your respective time before Piper finds out," said Leo, with a hint of remorse thinking of his late wife.  
  
"You mean mommy?" He looked up at Leo with his big green eyes. "Where's mommy?"  
  
"Uh, she's busy," said Bianca quickly.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Uh...Look, come with me, Chris—We're going Up There."  
  
"But you only take Wyatt Up There. He's twice-blessed. You need to teach him first, remember?"  
  
Leo winced. "Um...Now it's your turn."  
  
Chris' face lit up. "Really? Right now?"  
  
"Yeah, right now." Leo took his hand and turned to Bianca. "Was I...always like that?"  
  
She nodded solemnly. "I don't think you meant to, but you kind of ignored Chris all the time."  
  
They orbed and shimmered Up There.  
  
"Ooo, look at the clouds!" Chris squealed, trying to chase one of them.  
  
"Wait," said Bianca suddenly. "The clouds. I remember Chris saying something about the clouds once when I first met him...He told me this! He remembered switching bodies with his future self when he was little!" She tapped her foot, trying to recall the rest. "He told me he was mostly confused that his dad took him Up There, and that there was a girl that...looked like me! He saw me but he didn't know it at the time! This is wrong, just plain..."  
  
"What else did he say?" Leo interrupted.  
  
"Something about how he'd never forget the clouds he saw. He said he always wanted to remember that moment because he knew it would never happen again...I don't think he said much else, except that something scared him out of his mind..."  
  
"What else?"  
  
"I just remembered! He said it was when he knew for sure that Wyatt was evil and—"  
  
Little Chris shrieked.  
  
Bianca and Leo whipped around. Wyatt was clutching little Chris around the neck, holding Excalibur to his throat.  
  
"Wyatt, you wouldn't—"  
  
"Oh, would I, Leo?" said Wyatt menacingly. "You," he said to Bianca, "are dismissed from my Order. You didn't fulfill your task. I am only allowing you to live in hopes of you becoming more reliable someday." He turned back to Leo, squeezing Chris so hard that he couldn't breath. "I want you to serve me, Leo, or little Chris here dies."  
  
"I—I can't—"  
  
"You have to. You don't have any other choice..." He tightened his hold and Chris turned blue in the face. "I can kill him right now..."  
  
"Don't! He's your brother!"  
  
"What has he ever done for me, then?" retorted Wyatt. "All he does is attempt to thwart me, again and again...I won't let him. I've worked too long and hard for him to ruin it now."  
  
"Let him go—"  
  
Chris' eyes closed and he fell unconscious. Wyatt let him slip to the cloudy bottom of the elders' council.  
  
"He'll be fine," said Wyatt sharply, "but he won't be if you don't join me." He took up Excalibur, ready to stab and aiming straight for Chris' heart—  
  
Bianca, who had been silent up until now, suddenly spat out, "Take the bodies, switch them back To the time where they reside, Fix the rightfulness they lack And set them straight in space and time!"  
  
Little Chris disappeared. Wyatt, infuriated, orbed away.  
  
"Where's....?"  
  
"The alley," Leo said suddenly.  
  
They quickly went back down.  
  
Sure enough, there was Chris. His breathing was sharp and jagged and he was still clutching his stomach where the sword had been pierced through him, moaning.  
  
Leo ran to him and immediately began to heal. Chris opened his eyes.  
  
"What...?"  
  
"Chris! You scared the hell out of me, I thought—You wouldn't believe it, the WEIRDEST thing happened—"  
  
"I was in the past," said Chris weakly. "I saw mom...She...she thought I was an innocent, but Aunt Phoebe said I looked familiar..."  
  
"Slow down, Chris," said Leo. "It's okay now, you're safe. You're back. We're going to make sure that Gideon never lays another had on you again."  
  
"Maybe..." Chris trailed off. He looked at Leo with his same sorrowful green eyes. "Maybe he was supposed to kill me."  
  
"No, Chris, no," Leo insisted. "What would ever make you think that?"  
  
"I'm never going to be able to stop him."  
  
Bianca stood up. "Of course not! You can't defeat him alone!" she exclaimed. She held out her hand to him and helped him up. "We're going to defeat him, Chris, and we're going to do it together. Got it?"  
  
"Do you really mean it?" asked Chris.  
  
"I really mean it. From now on, nothing will stop us."  
  
((()))  
  
TBC. Mwahahah!  
  
Hey, I have a new story called "Aftermath" if anyone's interested!! —Hint Hint— lol 


	26. Coming Back

Disclaimer: "Dis" indeed. I consider having to shamefully admit that I don't own Charmed or Drew a "dis" (or slang for "insult").  
  
((()))  
  
Brian orbed down again. "Er...you guys need to go back..."  
  
"Back where?" asked Piper. "I'm not leaving, I haven't seen everything yet—"  
  
"And there will be plenty of time for that later, alright?" Brian snapped. "Look, you guys need to go back RIGHT NOW because YOUR Chris hasn't been conceived. He's fading away now—he's dying, technically speaking."  
  
"What?" Piper gasped. "Take us back, right now!"  
  
"How could he be dying? I thought no time passed while we were gone!" Phoebe objected.  
  
"It's, uh, a little more complicated than that." Brian cleared his throat and blushed a bit. "If you know what I mean," he added quickly. "By separating Piper and Leo, he's not going to exist if you guys don't...Um, yeah." He took their hands and orbed them back to the present.  
  
Chris was transparent with a slightly sheepish grin on his face. "Hi mom, hi dad," he said in a mock-cheerful voice. "Back so soon?"  
  
Piper looked at him closely for the first time. Her entire perspective of him had changed. She had always thought of him as an annoying, nagging whitelighter that screwed up her life—but now she knew the truth. This boy was her son, and he sacrificed everything to save them—his family, his home, his childhood—all because he loved them so much.  
  
"Chris, how did this happen?" Leo asked worriedly. "What can we do?"  
  
"Oooh, I think you know," said Phoebe with a grin.  
  
"No," said Piper, "no, no, no, no—"  
  
"Uh, Piper—er, mom—I'm kind of running out of—" Chris disappeared completely.  
  
"He'll be back, he's shifting through planes," Brian assured them quickly. "He hasn't been erased yet."  
  
Phoebe pushed Piper and Leo out of the attic and into their bedroom, locking the door. "Have fun, you two!" she exclaimed.  
  
Piper's muffled protests could be heard through the cracks in the door, but all Phoebe and Paige caught was "...blast this door down..." and "make you wish we could go back in time so YOU wouldn't be born..."  
  
"Lalala!" said Paige loudly. "WE CAN'T HEAR YOU!! Now get to work!"  
  
Chris shifted back to the mortal plane. "Okay, this is not fun!" he retorted.  
  
Phoebe and Paige looked at him strangely, reacting towards the sight of him the same way that Piper did. They felt like they couldn't talk to him now, they were still getting over the shock from their little trip...  
  
"What the hell is wrong with you two?" he asked, waving a hand in their face. He lowered his voice, the humor gone. "What did you see?"  
  
Phoebe bit her lip, hesitant to answer. "Everything up until when Bianca turned to the good side again," she said quickly, bracing herself for what he'd say. To their surprise, he didn't yell at them—he leaned against the wall and ran a hand through his hair with an exasperated sigh.  
  
"Chris, baby, I'm so sorry about what happened to you—"  
  
"Don't be, it doesn't matter," he said quietly. "You were never supposed to know. I should've realized that you guys were as stubborn in the past as you were alive in my future...Just, please," he said, "I don't really want to talk about it."  
  
"I understand," said Phoebe sympathetically. "But really, Chris, the pain isn't just going to go away. You know that. You can't pretend that you've moved on; that may take years. We still haven't gotten over Prue. I know that...you're still hurting. You could...talk about it to us?"  
  
Chris looked down at the ground. "Maybe later," he mumbled.  
  
Phoebe nodded.  
  
Just then, Chris reappeared fully where he was standing. They all looked at each other and burst out laughing as a grumpy, infuriated Piper threw the door open and made her way towards them.  
  
"NOT FUNNY," she protested. "You," she said, pointing a finger at Chris, "are going to pay for that, young man."  
  
"Just remember to stock up on diapers," said Paige happily. "I'm hungry. Who wants lunch?"  
  
"Uh, maybe I'll make it," Piper cut in quickly, knowing that it may not turn out so well and in need of an excuse to avoid Chris.  
  
"Right," they all agreed.  
  
"Chris, talk to me...when you're ready."  
  
Chris nodded to Phoebe as Piper and Paige left the room for the kitchen. Phoebe followed them, leaving Chris and Leo alone on the steps to the attic.  
  
"You didn't have to lie to us, Chris," Leo began after a moment. "We would've accepted you."  
  
Chris didn't respond; just stared at his hands.  
  
"Chris...you've been through a lot. We've seen that. We only want to help."  
  
"You can't help. I'm the one that came back to change this so I'm the one that has to do it."  
  
"Chris, you don't have to do this alone. You're our son! We trust you!"  
  
"You never trusted me before."  
  
"We didn't know, Chris," said Leo sadly. "I know that you probably hate me for never being there in your past, but I can change—"  
  
"You were there sometimes."  
  
"I wasn't there when it mattered most," Leo objected. "But all that will change. I promise, Chris...I won't let you go through that again."  
  
"It's already been done, Leo!"  
  
"I can be changed," Leo insisted, slightly hurt that Chris didn't call him dad. "I can make it change. It will be alright. Let us help you, Chris...you can't do this all alone. You can't go on with the weight of the world on your shoulders like this everyday...you're barely even a man yet."  
  
"I'm old enough to take care of myself and I think I've proven that before," said Chris, referring to his memories they invaded.  
  
"Yes, I'll admit that you have proven it. But did you like it? Did you enjoy being alone, fighting alone, living alone? Being by yourself and watching the days pass you by, doing nothing but hunting demons until you're on the verge of self-destruction?"  
  
Chris didn't respond again.  
  
"I know it hurts, Chris...but you know you need our help."  
  
"I don't want to bother you guys, I'm always changing the timeline and getting in the way," Chris said with watery eyes. "I don't mean to."  
  
"But you have to. We understand that now, Chris—and maybe changing the timeline is for the better. That's what you came here for, right?"  
  
"Right."  
  
"And you don't get in the way. Without you, Wyatt would be corrupt and evil. I don't think that that's considered getting in the way. I think that that would be saving your family and the entire world."  
  
Leo hugged his son, not wanting to let go. He knew that he couldn't erase the years of pain Chris had been put through but he wanted to help him. Being like a father to him now was instinct above all else.  
  
"I promise you'll have a better future, Chris. This time it will all be alright."  
  
Chris gave Leo a trusting look and they orbed down to the kitchen together, ready to have a meal with the sisters.  
  
Their first meal as a complete family.  
  
((()))  
  
TBC. Yes, there will be more disaster—I just don't know when. Hey, I've finally updated "Numb" too. And just for the record, I'm going to try to update "A Look into the Future," "Aftermath," and "Numb," at least once a day each. This all depends on how much time my brother needs to spend on his online course...CURSES...lol. 


	27. Three Demons

Disclaimer: DON'T. EVEN. START. ME. I HATE THE WORLD!! I DON'T OWN CHARMED OR MORE IMPORTANTLY, DREW FULLER! WHAT DID I EVER DO TO DESERVE SUCH A FATE!? Okay, now I'm calm. It's safe to keep reading, folks.  
  
Here's chappie 27.  
  
((()))  
  
"So, what does everybody want?" asked Piper, taking out the pots and pans. She checked out the pantry. "Gee, we've got soup, soup, and...more soup. Paige, did you forget to go grocery shopping yesterday?"  
  
Paige shrugged. "I don't even remember yesterday."  
  
There was an awkward silence at the table.  
  
"I guess we're gonna have to get used to our old hormonal, pregnant Piper again," said Phoebe, trying to lighten the atmosphere.  
  
"Haha," said Piper sarcastically, starting to cook the soup. "Very funny, Pheebs. As if I would ever be hormonal!"  
  
Leo and Paige stifled back giggles.  
  
"Oh, I see...you all think I'm mental!"  
  
They burst out laughing now. "No, no, of course not Piper..." Leo tried to say between his laughter. "Not hormonal...just..."  
  
"Just crazy!" Paige finished for him. She turned to Chris. "I don't believe you've seen Piper pregnant before, have you, Chris? Lemme tell ya from firsthand experience, it's not pretty...And now that she actually has someone to lay the blame on, you'd better watch out..."  
  
Chris grinned. "I'll be sure to be very, very careful," he said, mocking fear in his voice. He stood and washed his plate out in the sink, trying to ignore the fact that Leo and the sisters were staring at him. Finally he got agitated. "Okay, what is up with the four of you? Stop acting like I'm an alien! It happened and now it's over, okay?"  
  
"Chris..." Phoebe trailed off. Chris gave her a not-right-now glare.  
  
"Hey, Chris, now that we know who you are and everything...Why don't you move into the manor? I mean, there's definitely room here with Paige and Phoebe having moved out...You can take Phoebe's room."  
  
"Hey!" said Phoebe playfully, nudging Piper. She turned to Chris and said seriously, "We mean it, Chris. You can stay here. We want you to."  
  
"Whaddaya say, Chris?" said Paige, agreeing with her sisters.  
  
"Um..." Chris said shiftily. "I can't."  
  
"Of course you can!" Leo countered. "You're family, Chris. You're more than welcome here."  
  
"I know that, it's because..." He mumbled something incoherent under his breath.  
  
"What was that?" asked Piper, confused.  
  
"I have to go to the P3 for the demon contacts!" he blurted. "I do a lot of undercover work, trying to get information on Wyatt. Some of the idiots I've found now are into gossiping and know a lot, so I converse with them. They expect me to be at the P3; they're always tracking me, they may even know I'm here right now. Of course, I have to vanquish them because they're plotting to kill an innocent soon, so I'd better get to them fast." He sighed. "Look—this is the way it has to be. I'm supposed go down to the Underworld because they trust me there."  
  
"You are NOT going down to the Underworld, and you are NOT going to mingle with demons! There has to be another way to get information—we'll help," said Piper.  
  
"You can't. They don't know you. I've barely earned their trust myself, Piper—"  
  
"That's MOM to you."  
  
Chris rolled his eyes. "I don't want to break their trust by bringing any of you. I'm sorry." He looked edgily towards the clock. "I have to go or they'll know I've been gone. And don't worry, nothing happens to the club...we usually go to an alley or...down to the Underworld." Chris orbed away quickly at the end of that sentence, knowing that Piper would object and not wanting to hear it from her.  
  
"CHRIS HALLIWELL, YOU ORB YOUR LITTLE HALF WHITELIGHTER BUTT BACK DOWN HERE OR I'LL—I'LL—" She turned to her sisters, tears forming in her eyes. "Why does he turn away?"  
  
((()))  
  
Chris' eyes darted from wall to wall of the office at the P3, where he was staying at the time. He really wanted to move into the manor, with all of his heart...but he couldn't. He couldn't move in if he wanted to get the job done right. Besides...living in the manor...He shuddered at the mere thought of all those memories flooding back as they has when he traveled to his past.  
  
He hated letting down his mother and father and aunts, but Piper's expression was almost more than he could bear. All of his life he'd always aimed to make her proud, right up until the day she died—and there she was, right there, disappointed in him.  
  
He sighed and looked at the clock. It blinked 2:29pm. He grimaced. One more minute until the meeting...  
  
Three demon-women blinked in, gossiping while they traveled. They stopped abruptly when they saw Chris.  
  
"Oh, meeting time already?" said one of them, trying to seduce Chris. They were all wearing sleazy, revealing clothing and acted as if they were on an everlasting drug-high.  
  
"Yeah," said Chris, shrugging out of her reaching grasp. "So...Any news down there? You know how I love to hear everything from you..." He couldn't believe he was lowering himself to such a level, but he knew it would be best to add, "...because I know my little sugars can dish up all of the news around the Underworld." Phew. He said it without coughing.  
  
The three of them giggled, ugly faces twisted into disgusting, unrecognizable smiles.  
  
"Well...News around the Underworld has changed quite a bit," the second demon informed him, still trying to get closer. This time he let her touch his shoulder, but not anymore...he'd have to suck up to them if he was to do this.  
  
"What do you mean?" he asked a little too eagerly. He changed his tone. "I mean, anything you've found out is definitely worth hearing..." He wanted to kick himself for that, and he thought to himself, 'Bianca, if you're listening to this right now, wherever you are...DON'T LAUGH.'  
  
"I'm sure you'll find this worth hearing," said the third seductively, sitting down on the other side of him on the bed. The three of them had pretty much penned him in, surrounding him. He shivered involuntarily.  
  
"Yes...quite sure," the second added.  
  
"It's something that none of us expected to be coming," said the first.  
  
"What?" said Chris, dying of anticipation. Why were they so freaking slow? He was so busy thinking that he didn't even realize what they were doing—until they plunged an athame into his stomach. He didn't even have time to react. The pain shot through him like lightning. He buckled over in pain. "Why...?"  
  
"Because you betrayed us," the first hissed, withdrawing the athame and watching in satisfaction as blood oozed through his shirt. "We know who you really are...whitelighter." She pronounced the last word as if it came from a deadly language, shuddering.  
  
"Let's go girls," said the second haughtily.  
  
They blinked out.  
  
Chris moaned in agony, but quickly righted himself and sat up on the bed. He'd have to pretend that nothing happened or Piper would be pissed with him for getting into trouble. Besides, he'd already promised her that it would be safe...He didn't want to admit that he'd lied...  
  
The pain subsided somewhat, enough that he could stand. He was used to pain by now, since...since all of the stuff in his past. He cursed to himself, remembering his family's little journey. At least they didn't see...He shuddered. He didn't want them to see Leo getting murdered.  
  
Gingerly clutching his wound, he limped over to the drawer, where he kept his first aid kit handy (I would like to interrupt this story to thank Charmed Melinda Halliwell, the sponsor of these bandages. Thank you!) and started to wrap up the bleeding stab mark. Unfortunately it bled through the bandaging, causing him wince. He shivered again—this time not out of fear.  
  
He sat back down on the bed carefully, trying not to worsen his condition. He slowly shifted his head onto the pillow and closed his eyes. He was in for a rough night.  
  
((()))  
  
"Piper, don't be upset," Phoebe soothed. "He just needs some space right now. I think this is all too much for him to absorb."  
  
Piper nodded, tears streaking down her face. "I just wish..." She shook her head. "Wait, what time is it?" she asked out of nowhere.  
  
Paige looked at the microwave clock. "Almost two-thirty. Why?"  
  
"Oh, damn it! In all the commotion I forgot that I had to set up for the band tonight..." She absent-mindedly grabbed Phoebe's purse by mistake and headed out the door, grabbing Paige's jacket.  
  
"Wait—" said Leo. The door closed and Paige and Phoebe looked worriedly out the window, watching Piper drive away.  
  
"I think she just wants to check on Chris," Paige rationalized.  
  
"Bad idea..." said Phoebe in a warning tone. "We're gonna have one very pissed off whitelighter orbing in here in a few minutes."  
  
((()))  
  
Ahhh, the sweet smell of an evil cliffhanger driving peoples to their last nerve...I like writing this fic! Have FUN! TBC.  
  
Pink-Charmed-One 


	28. Memory Loss

Piper drove up to the P3 and parked her car, frantically applying lipstick so she could look semi-presentable to the band's manager. The instant she stepped out she got these weird vibes, like something was wrong. Burglars? Or maybe the band canceled? And then she remembered those demons Chris was summoning...She put it out of her thoughts. He was old enough to take care of himself.  
  
She unlocked the door to the club and surveyed the surroundings. It was all left just as she had seen it last night; even though last night seemed to be last year. Apparently the band and their manager hadn't arrived yet. She sighed in relief and sat down at the bar counter...and looked over at the office.  
  
"No, Piper," she told herself. "You'd be invading his privacy. No, no, no..." She found herself slowly getting up from her seat and walking towards the office. His door was already opened—would it really be a crime to push it open a little bit more?  
  
She saw Chris' face through the small gap in the door. He appeared to be fast asleep, sprawled out on the bed in exhaustion. She was glad he was catching up in his shut-eye, but something about the scene seemed wrong. She let herself open the door a bit more.  
  
Oh, this was so silly! How could something happen to him in fifteen minutes? She almost laughed, but she remembered that Chris was sleeping and stopped, putting a hand to her mouth. She took one last glance at his peaceful face and sat back down at the bar counter, still waiting to meet the band.  
  
((()))  
  
Leo and Brian were long since gone and Piper, Phoebe, and Paige sat on the couch, watching the TV quietly while Wyatt slept in his play pen.  
  
"Well, this is odd," Phoebe commented thoughtfully. "It's so..."  
  
"Peaceful? Quiet? Relaxed?" Piper questioned. "Yeah, that hasn't happened in a while."  
  
"I can't believe that we have nothing to do..." Paige sighed. "I kind of worry about Chris. Should we have left him alone?"  
  
"I saw him at the P3. He fell right asleep, the poor guy. He must've been really tired after all these demon at—"  
  
BAM!  
  
A demon burst in through the window. He looked like your average human- man...just with demonic powers. He growled at them threateningly.  
  
"Wyatt, danger!" Phoebe shrieked, levitating to kick the demon. She managed to get his head and he stumbled a bit but didn't lose focus.  
  
Piper tried to blow him up but he easily dodged it. He held up a dagger, ready to stab Phoebe—  
  
"Dagger," commanded Paige, summoning it out of his arms. She tossed it to Phoebe, who stabbed him on the spot.  
  
"Everyone okay?" she panted.  
  
"Yeah, except for my leg," Piper complained. "Don't worry, just got hit by a small glass shard. It's barely a scrape."  
  
"Yeah, but it gives us an excuse to call our whitelighter," Paige said slyly, grinning.  
  
"Exactly. CHRIS!" Piper screamed.  
  
They waited for a moment, but no one came.  
  
"CHRIS!"  
  
((()))  
  
"Chris..."  
  
He stirred a bit. Was that his mother calling him?  
  
"CHRIS..."  
  
He shot up in cold sweat, only to fall back down at the intense pain he felt. Where was it coming from? He looked down at his stomach and saw a stab wound. How did that happen? He couldn't remember.  
  
"CHRIS!"  
  
The call was alarmingly loud, coming from Piper. He slowly got up out of bed, pain shooting through him every time he moved, and threw on a sweater so they wouldn't see the blood. He hoped they weren't mad...He wished he could remember what had happened...  
  
He orbed in.  
  
"What?" he asked groggily, pretending that the reason he was late was that he was asleep. "It's ten o'clock, Piper. What's going on?"  
  
"Oh, did we wake you?" said Piper. "Sorry."  
  
Chris clutched the back of the couch for support. He suddenly felt very dizzy. "Um...that's okay. Was there a demon attack? Is everyone alright?"  
  
"Yeah, we are," said Phoebe, starting to worry. "How about you? You look sick."  
  
"Just tired," he lied, blowing it off. He clutched the couch harder as she stepped closer to him. She felt his forehead.  
  
"You're really burning up, Chris," said Phoebe. "Just stay here for a while and when Leo comes back he can heal you."  
  
Chris' mind seemed to twist for a moment, like it was being squeezed. "Who's Leo?" he asked out of nowhere. "Why am I here?"  
  
"Um, Chris..." Piper waved a hand in front of his face.  
  
"Who's Chris?"  
  
The sisters exchanged concerned glances and looked back over at Chris. "YOU'RE Chris, honey," said Piper gently, guiding him to the couch. "And Leo's your dad You're here because we called you."  
  
"On the phone?"  
  
"No, we called you because—"  
  
"Piper, I think you're confusing him. Just let him rest, alright? He might get better in the morning—"  
  
"Holy shit," said Piper once she saw what was happening. "He's bleeding!" She lifted up his shirt. "Phoebe, he's been stabbed! Chris, why didn't you tell us?"  
  
"Tell you what?"  
  
"You're hurt, Chris! LEO! LEO!"  
  
Leo orbed in. "What's going on?"  
  
"To sum it up, Chris had been stabbed and just completely lost his memory. Heal him," Paige ordered.  
  
Leo looked slightly frazzled by the weird information, but rushed over to heal him. Chris looked up and blinked at the four people in the room.  
  
"You are in SO much trouble, Chris!" Piper shrieked.  
  
"Wait—I'M Chris, right?" asked Chris. "What did I do?"  
  
"You got attacked by demons and you didn't tell us! You could've DIED!"  
  
"Demons? Like the ones in the fairy tales?"  
  
Piper sighed, exasperated. "Let's start from the beginning. I'm Piper, you're mom, this is Leo, your dad, and these are your aunts, Phoebe and Paige."  
  
"Right. Okay...Why am I here? I don't know any of you."  
  
"This is what Piper was like once Leo screwed up her head," Phoebe groaned.  
  
"I thought you were Piper," Chris said to Phoebe.  
  
"UGH!" 


	29. Mixed Up

Disclaimer: I OWN CHARMED. MWAHAH! –wakes up from dream— Aw, dammit! I don't own Charmed after all...and I don't own that hot dog from the dream, either...  
  
((()))  
  
"Okay, so you're Phoebe, you're Piper, you're Paige, and you're Leo. How can you be my aunts and my parents when you're all so young?" he laughed.  
  
Piper groaned. "This may take awhile."  
  
"Now you know how we felt!" said Phoebe indignantly.  
  
"Okay, okay, sorry," said Piper. She turned back to Chris. "You're from 20 or so years in the future. You came to save that baby over there, your older brother, from turning evil. Ring any bells?"  
  
Chris burst out laughing. "That baby? My older brother? He looks, like, two years old!"  
  
"Yes, because you came from the future!" Piper reminded him impatiently.  
  
"I did?"  
  
Piper growled.  
  
"I mean, yeah, I did. Whatever you say, uh...Piper?"  
  
"Good, you're remembering names. That baby is Wyatt. You belong in the future, 23 years from now, where that baby is 25."  
  
"Then why don't I go back to the future?"  
  
"Because you came back here to stop your brother from turning evil!"  
  
"Well then, how does he turn evil?"  
  
"HOW SHOULD I KNOW?!"  
  
"Piper, patience is a virtue," Paige chastised her older sister. Calmly, she approached a now shocked and frightened Chris. "Here, you can sleep on the couch tonight and we'll try to restore your memory, okay?"  
  
He nodded.  
  
"Stay right here. Don't move."  
  
Once they were gone, Chris tried to take off his shoes, but, once again, found that he didn't know how. He twisted his face in confusion and began messing around with the laces until finally taking them off without undoing the knot. With a sigh, he threw himself back onto the couch.  
  
"Do you ?"  
  
Chris shot back up. The three women from before were there, but he didn't recognize them. He didn't even know they were evil.  
  
"Yeah, you could say that. Who are you? More freakish relatives?"  
  
"Sure...Listen, you know those people up there? The ones that went upstairs?" The speaker leaned in towards him and whispered. "They're bad people, Chris—they're liars."  
  
"Yeah," said the other. "They wanted to take advantage of you. In real life, you were our cousin. We live in the Underworld and we try to kill bad people like that so we can do, um, good."  
  
"Come with us, before those people kill you AND us!" the third cried.  
  
Chris hesitated. "How do I know that you three aren't the bad guys?"  
  
"Because we love you, Chris. Besides, how could those people be your aunts and your parents? They're too young! They're just really bad people and really bad liars. C'mon, quickly—take my hand. We're going to use this really cool magical power called 'blinking' to get to where we all live."  
  
"Okay."  
  
He took the demon's hand.  
  
Phoebe happened to walk down the stairs at that precise moment. She saw the demons and gasped. "Chris, no—"  
  
They shimmered away.  
  
((()))  
  
"Why don't you sit here, Chris?" one of the demons offered. "We're going to try and figure out what, er, happened to you. We'll be right back." She crossed the rocky room of the Underworld and rejoined Chris' "cousins."  
  
"It worked," she squealed. "I can't believe something we did actually worked! And you guys said that lining an athame with memory loss potion was a BAD idea!"  
  
"It almost was a bad idea," the tallest said darkly. "If that whitelighter hadn't saved him, we wouldn't have any bait."  
  
"Well, we know that he's in some relation to the Charmed Ones, considering that's where he ended up. You watched him orb there like I did, right?" The two demons nodded back at her. "I bet he's their whitelighter."  
  
"What about the other whitelighter? Why would they have two? Are they THAT important?" she marveled. "Hm...and another thing. Why would a whitelighter be living on earth and not Up There with those crappy elders?"  
  
"I say we ask him," the second concluded, leading them all back over to him. "Hey, Chris," she said sweetly, "we wanted to know exactly what those imposters said to you, right from the very beginning, alright? That way it'll be easier to return your memory."  
  
Chris gulped. "They told me I was from the future, to save Wyatt," he explained. He chuckled nervously. "They even said that the baby in the playpen was my older brother in the future, and that they were all my relatives. At one point they even started claiming to be my mom and dad and aunts! Can you believe that? They're crazy! Obviously they're way too young—"  
  
"Wait—is that exactly what they said?"  
  
"Yeah, and that some demons must've stabbed me."  
  
The three demons shrugged. "Can't think of who would've done that. Probably those liars at the manor."  
  
"Thanks for, um, saving me," Chris said gratefully.  
  
"Oh, you're welcome. Now, I think this'll help you regain your memory. Hold still," she ordered in the same sickly sweet voice, conjuring and electric blue, swirling energy ball in her hands. "This won't hurt a bit."  
  
"Okay."  
  
At that moment, Piper, Leo and Paige orbed in. Seeing what was about to happen, Piper froze the scene and sighed in relief. The fireball stopped inches from Chris' nose.  
  
"Hey! That was supposed to give me back my memory!" Chris protested. "Besides, you're the bad guys—you even lie badly!"  
  
"Chris, I know our story sounds a little wacked," said Paige pleadingly, "But you have to understand that when I do this, it's for your own good." She threw a potion at him and he immediately fell asleep. "That'll keep him down for a while."  
  
"Phoebe should be done finishing the other potion that'll give him back his memory by now. Let's take him home."  
  
Leo and Paige helped Chris up and orbed him to the attic of the manor, settling him down on a couch.  
  
"Are you done yet?" asked Piper.  
  
Phoebe threw in one last ingredient and watched the potion go "POP!" for a moment. When all the smoke had cleared, she took a vial and filled it up. "It has to cool. I'd give it five minutes."  
  
Piper nodded. "I think the sleeping potion will last us long enough. What do you think they know? How much would Chris have told them in this state?"  
  
"Well, they probably know he's not a demon," said Paige sarcastically.  
  
"And they probably know that he's been in the manor before," Leo added. "Piper, you and I go down and vanquish those three demons and we'll come back for Chris." Leo orbed with Piper down to the Underworld. They came back a couple of seconds later.  
  
"That was fast," Phoebe noted. "Ah, I think it's done..." She lifted the potion out of the ice. "I hope this isn't gonna hurt you, Chris." She closed her eyes in anticipation and threw that vial at him. It smashed at his feet and smoke surrounded him.  
  
He woke up screaming, tears running down his cheeks. "What...?" he managed to ask. He ducked his head down low and orbed away.  
  
"What happened?" Piper demanded. "What did that potion do?"  
  
"It was supposed to restore his memory!" Phoebe shot back.  
  
"And that's just what it did," said Leo grimly. "The impact of the memories fresh in his mind probably came at him so hard that it was a big shock—that potion made him remember EVERYTHING, even the things he tried to forget."  
  
Phoebe sighed. "I think he'll be ready to talk."  
  
((()))  
  
A/N—DREW IS MINE, YOU HEAR!? ALL MINE! MINE MINE MINE! Anyways, thanks for all the wonderful reviews! I'm thinking of wrapping this story up in the next five chappies or so. I gotta do more on my other fics anyways. R&R! 


	30. No Excuses

Disclaimer: Don't own anything. Curse you all.  
  
((()))  
  
Chris didn't know what the hell had just happened. He thought back. The last thing he could remember was being stabbed by those demons. What had happened since then? He looked at his stomach and realized that the wound was gone. The sisters knew—otherwise they wouldn't have called Leo to heal him.  
  
So why was he just blasted with all of these emotions? Suddenly he could remember every moment of his life, down to what everybody was wearing. He shivered involuntarily. This was just plain creepy.  
  
He could recall events from when he was barely a year old up until the stabbing and it was unbearable. He raced through his mind, new, fresh images flashing. Wyatt taking his things, stomping on his favorite toys...Leo orbing away in the middle of his lesson in bike-riding to Chris, leaving him to fall headfirst on the pavement, Leo taking Wyatt Up There but not him...And those weren't the memories that particularly bothered him.  
  
He could see everybody's deaths; Piper, Phoebe, Paige, little Prue, Colin, Mel, Bindle, Bailey, Mark, older Prue...Leo...even when Wyatt killed Bianca. (Wow. How many people have I murdered? 11 on my own, 2 on the show. Lol.) He saw the blood, remembered every second of turmoil he'd blocked for so long. Tears ran down his cheeks and fell down hundreds of feet to the cars whirring down below on the bridge.  
  
The anger, sadness, frustration, confusion and loneliness all came back in that one second. Who was he kidding, trying to save the world? He wasn't superman! He was just Chris, the OTHER son. The one that wasn't twice- blessed. The one that failed and let his family die...  
  
Wait. There were some memories he didn't recognize in the least bit...and Piper, Phoebe, and Paige were in them. There was one where he was at the pool, looking back at Brian. He thought he saw them there but pushed it aside. And another, where he was on the bridge fighting a diluted, mind- controlled Leo and he thought he heard Piper scream. In one, he was wounded and going upstairs to make battle plans for Wyatt and thought he heard Paige's footsteps...And a last one. He was healed and in bed, and two sets of sisters were surrounding him, as well as his family...  
  
Then it hit him. The sisters had tried to change the timeline.  
  
He wished he could forget it all, but he couldn't. It had taken him years to recover from these events that had happened gradually, and now they all hit him even more vividly than before. Piper's mangled body seemed to hover stubbornly in his mind, unceasingly mocking him. It hurt so badly he wished he could just die...  
  
Looking down below him he knew he had three options. Jump down to the cars, jump down to the water, or orb back to the P3 and hope that everything would just go away. Screams pierced his ears, blood at his fingertips, watching every single innocent Wyatt ever killed in front of him...Why wouldn't it stop? He orbed to the P3, his eyes shut tightly and hands over his ears.  
  
"Make it stop, make it stop..." he begged. "Stop it..."  
  
((()))  
  
"I can sense for him," Leo offered.  
  
"No," said Piper suddenly. "He'll come back to the P3 when he's ready, and I'll be there when he is. You guys stay here just in case he comes back."  
  
"Alright," agreed Phoebe.  
  
"Should we try to come up with a way to fix this?" Paige asked Piper.  
  
Piper sighed. "I think we'll ask him first. He may feel differently about it and I'm really not the one that should be making decisions for him." She grabbed her coat from the couch and left the attic hurriedly.  
  
The three of them didn't break the silence until they heard the car pull out of the driveway.  
  
((()))  
  
Piper arrived at the P3 and walked quickly out the door of her car, slamming it shut. She opened her purse and fumbled with the keys in an attempt to open the door faster and stumbled inside. Flipping on the lights, she rushed to the office door and swung it open.  
  
Chris sat on the mattress, hands over his ears and eyes shut tight, muttering something through the tears that still escaped his closed eyes. "Stop it..." he was moaning.  
  
"Chris," Piper gasped, walking over to him slowly. She sat down next to him and wrapped him in a hug. "It's okay, Chris. It'll all be okay."  
  
Chris sobbed into her shoulder. "No, no it won't, mom. Those people...they're all dead and I forgot about them! And you...you tried to change my past...and—and everyone was dead..."  
  
"We know, honey, we saw it all...We didn't mean for this to happen to you, we love you, Chris. You have to know that. No matter what's happened to your family before, we'll always be here and you can always turn to us. Nobody's going to die. You came here to change that, remember?"  
  
Their embrace unlocked and Chris looked up at her trustingly, green eyes still wet with tears. "I know. I just don't want to lose you guys all over again."  
  
Piper laughed ruefully. "It's not us you need to worry about losing, Chris...you almost just died! We were so worried!"  
  
"You shouldn't be. That's not supposed to happen in this timeline. I'm not even supposed to be here."  
  
"That's not true, Chris! Just because you came back to change certain things doesn't mean that other things won't changed with it! You can't stop us from caring, Chris, because we all care about you a lot. You need to accept that. You're a part of this family as much as everyone else is, from the future or not."  
  
"Thanks mom."  
  
They hugged quickly before standing back up off of the bed.  
  
"Now, why don't you orb us back home?"  
  
"Sure."  
  
They orbed back home to find an empty attic. Apparently Leo and the two remaining sisters had dispersed and wandered to their rooms. Piper grinned.  
  
"Guess all the action was a bit too much for them, huh?"  
  
"What action?" asked Chris.  
  
Piper laughed. "You don't remember it. Those demons you were 'safely conversing with' stabbed you and you completely lost your memory. They kidnapped you in your vulnerable state and tried to get information out of you. Fortunately we got there just in time—I froze the scene just as and energy ball was a second away from smashing you to bits, and your thanks was a complaint about us being evil and stopping the energy ball from 'giving you your memory back.'"  
  
Chris blushed. "Um, sorry?"  
  
"It's okay," Piper chuckled. "Now that the demons are vanquished, though, you have NO EXCUSE to avoid us. There's a nice, cozy spot on the couch waiting for you, got it?"  
  
Chris rolled his eyes. "Alright, mom," he surrendered, walking down the stairs to the couch.  
  
Piper smiled and her face remained that way until she crawled into bed, pleasantly surprised to see that Leo was there with her.  
  
"Hey honey," she greeted him.  
  
"How'd it go?"  
  
"Pretty well. I think that Chris won't be as difficult about opening up to us anymore."  
  
((()))  
  
Chris stood next to the couch, staring at it. Dare he go to sleep after all these memories had been restored? He sighed. He was really, really tired. The day had been hard for all of them—and LONG, too. The sisters and Leo saw all of his past, he explained it all to them, got stabbed by a demon, lost his memory, restored his memory and fixed his relationship with Piper all in one day. With that, he knew fighting sleep was pointless and he flopped down onto the couch...since his shoes were still off. (Lol...remember? Anyways, can you believe it? This entire story has taken place in one day!)  
  
—DREAM—  
  
"Mommy? Wyatt?" a four-year-old Chris moaned, shivering in the darkness. He was in some kind of a forest. Every twist and turn of the mangled branches encasing him seemed to mock his every cry. He was hopelessly lost.  
  
"Mommy, Wyatt? Where are you? Hello?"  
  
Something rustled in the trees behind him. Frightened and lacking experience of demons, Chris ran carelessly through the thick wasteland. Branches and twigs of trees and bushes with long thorns trashed at his side, opening cuts in numerous places, but he ran on, crying.  
  
"Mommy?!"  
  
Finally he tripped on a bulging tree root and feel over. His ankle made a sickening snapping noise and he squeaked in pain. "Mommy, Wyatt, where did you go? Why did you leave me here?" He clutched his swelling ankle and tried to decipher all of the shapes in the darkness. He heard the rustling again and turned around, just in time to see a heavy metal object flying at his head. He was too late to duck.  
  
—END OF DREAM—  
  
"CHRIS?! Chris wake up!"  
  
((()))  
  
A/N—I would now like to take this opportunity to announce that Drew and I are engaged! See my wedding ring? MWHAHA! And better yet—guess what? If you're not seeking revenge over me stealing Drew, you're all invited to the wedding! YAY! LOL. 


	31. Tales Forgotten

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but my pitiful excuse for a brain...and the wedding ring Drew gave me! And as far as it goes for vengeful wedding guests, NO SABOTAGE! Our bodyguards will slap you over the head with keyboards until you become unconscious.  
  
On a lighter note, here's the story:  
  
((()))  
  
"CHRIS!"  
  
Chris shot up with a jolt, hands covering his face and bracing himself for the impact of whatever was flying for him. He only realized where he was when Piper started to pry his arms away.  
  
"What happened?" asked Piper worriedly.  
  
"N—nothing, I was just dreaming." Piper glared at him, so he sighed and continued. "I didn't remember it before, but when I was really little some demon...I'm not quite sure, actually. I mean, I know that you and Wyatt were in trouble and that I was alone in the forest calling for you, but I was too young to understand what was happening. Besides, something flew through the air and knocked me out... and..." He shook his head, obviously unable to go on with the story.  
  
"Why didn't we see that when we traveled?"  
  
"Probably because I didn't remember enough of it," he explained. "This really sucks."  
  
"I can imagine it does...but try to get some sleep, alright? It's almost midnight—definitely not time to get up." She left the living room and walked up the stairs to her room. "Good night, Chris."  
  
"G'night."  
  
Piper, however, didn't go back to her room. She found the spell she was using before to see Chris' past and recited it, not even bothering to wake her husband or sisters.  
  
In the now familiar whirlwind of blue lights, she found herself in the sitting room. Two little boys sat on the couch; Chris about two and Wyatt maybe four. They had grumpy looks on their faces.  
  
"Mom, are you almost done? I'm sick of watching Chris, he's so boring! He doesn't talk!"  
  
Chris glared at Wyatt. "Do too," he said babyishly.  
  
"Only when you have to!" Wyatt shot back. "MOM?"  
  
"Give me a minute, honey, there's a demon to vanquish! I'll call you when it's safe to come back, but for now I need you two down here so you can use your shield!"  
  
"What's taking so long?" Wyatt grumbled.  
  
"We're trying to figure out which one of us will play decoy," Phoebe laughed. "You two be quiet or they might hear you, okay?"  
  
Brian orbed in from behind Piper with an irritated look on his face. "Back again?" he asked, annoyed. "I don't get paid enough to do this job..."  
  
"I'm not staying long," Piper protested. "Besides, it's just me this time."  
  
"Chris can play decoy," Wyatt said to himself with a glint in his eyes. "That way mommy can come play with us again." He turned to Chris. "Wanna play a game? It's called decoy."  
  
Chris nodded. "How?"  
  
"You stand right over there and scream really, really loudly. At the top of your lungs, alright?"  
  
He nodded again and climbed down off the couch, toddling over to the middle of the room. Though he didn't talk much, it was apparent that it wasn't because he didn't have the voice for it...He was LOUD.  
  
"Damn it!" Piper exclaimed. "He's gotta set of lungs on him!" She and Brian both had their hands over their ears.  
  
Two demons shimmered in with pleased looks of triumph. One of them grabbed Chris and Chris orbed away in escape. Unfortunately, since he was so young and his powers were undeveloped, he only traveled about a foot. He raised his pudgy hand and sent the vase in the corner flying at one demon, effectively knocking him out.  
  
Wyatt looked shocked. "Chris, come back—" He raced over towards his little brother, but not before the demon sent Chris flying at the wall in anger. They shimmered away.  
  
"Chris!" Wyatt cried, running over to where Chris had hit the wall. Chris' eyes were closed and he appeared to be unconscious but otherwise unharmed. "Chris, wake up!" Wyatt pleaded. "MOMMY! MOMMY!"  
  
Piper rushed down the steps. "What—Chris! Wyatt, what happened?"  
  
"It's all my fault, I didn't mean to...The demons came and Chris tried to stop them and they flew him at the wall—"  
  
"He's alive," Phoebe said in relief.  
  
"LEO!" Piper called. "LEO, get down here and heal your son! LEO!"  
  
Nobody came.  
  
"LEO! LEO!"  
  
The sound of herself calling for her husband echoed through her mind and the scene froze.  
  
"He never came, there's no point in watching anymore..." said Brian sadly. "Ready for the next memory? That is, if you aren't bored yet..." he hinted hopefully.  
  
Piper shook her head in determination. "Not until I see everything. I want to understand."  
  
"Okay...You asked for it...Got any particular age in mind?"  
  
"Yes. Well, no. I mean, Chris said he was little and some demons kidnapped him. He said that Wyatt and Piper were in trouble and that he was lost in a forest and knocked out by something. Ring any bells...?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Fast forward, then."  
  
Brian sighed and obeyed, flicking his hand to reset the atmosphere. They were in the attic of the manor now, and Piper and Wyatt were on the couch. It looked like it was late evening.  
  
"Wyatt, this is a huge responsibility, okay? Not just anybody gets to go Up There, only the people they think can handle it. You have to be well- behaved and listen to the Elders. Be nice to them...to some degree."  
  
"What about Chris?" asked Wyatt. "Isn't Chris coming?"  
  
"When he gets older maybe," said Piper. "Now, you should be getting to bed, Wyatt."  
  
Just then, a demon shimmered into the manor with an athame. "You two...don't move."  
  
Wyatt screamed but Piper clapped a hand to his mouth.  
  
"Mom, what's—"  
  
Little Chris just walked in through the door, now about four years. He stopped mid-step in seeing the demon but didn't scream, obviously too shocked. The demon grabbed him.  
  
"Let go of the twice-blessed on or I'll kill him," the demon threatened, holding the athame to Chris' throat. "I mean it."  
  
"No!" Piper screamed. "LEO!"  
  
Leo orbed down.  
  
"Take Wyatt, quickly," she begged.  
  
The demon slit Chris on the arm. "Not so fast!"  
  
Chris squeaked in pain.  
  
"Chris, orb to mommy," Piper pleaded. "Orb to mommy..."  
  
"I can't!" he cried.  
  
"Yes you can, Chris, jus try really, really hard..."  
  
"I can only orb in one spot!"  
  
Leo and Wyatt hadn't left yet, still waiting to make sure Chris got out alright.  
  
"If the elder takes the twice-blessed one, this one will die...Have I made myself clear?"  
  
"Stop it!" said Piper. "Orb to mommy, Chris, please..."  
  
Chris orbed but still ended up in the demon's grasp. Tears ran down his cheeks in frustration.  
  
"C'mon, Chris, Wyatt could do it by the time he was your age!" Leo yelled. "You can do it!"  
  
Instead of helping, though, all it seemed to do was make Chris cry harder. "I'm not as good as Wyatt!" he sobbed. "Help me!"  
  
Three more demons shimmered in to the other's aid. Two grabbed Wyatt, knocking out Leo and forcing him away. The other grabbed Piper.  
  
"Take them to the lair. I have a fine disposal for the spare witch," he said maliciously, staring down at Chris with a hunger in his eyes.  
  
"No, don't you hurt my—" The other demons shimmered away with Piper and Wyatt. Chris sobbed, thrashing his arms to get away from the demon that held him.  
  
"Don't try to escape, little one," the demon taunted. "It'll only make it worse."  
  
"MOMMY! WYATT!"  
  
The demon shimmered away.  
  
"Where's he taking him?" present Piper demanded. "What's going on?"  
  
"The demon took him to where Chris had his dream. I'll orb you there to follow him, but you're not gonna like what you see..."  
  
"Has there been a single thing I've liked since I got here in the first place? All his memories suck! I'm not doing this to enjoy myself...I just want to know what to fix when these times come."  
  
Brian shrugged and orbed her. While they were there, Piper saw the entire part of Chris' dream, up until something hard and metal flew through the air and smacked Chris on the head.  
  
"Chris!" she cried out, though knowing that he couldn't hear her. "Chris..." She ran up to him. His head was bleeding profusely and he was lying very still. He seemed to be alive, though, for the most part.  
  
The demon stepped over Chris' limp form with a grin on his face. "That'll keep you in the darkness for a while..."  
  
Brian helped Piper up, away from Chris. "Look, we need to speed this memory up, too. You see, Chris stayed here for two weeks, evading the demon and just barely staying alive. It's where he learned to orb from place to place and how he mastered telekinesis. You and Wyatt easily got out of the demons' lair, but you couldn't find Chris, no matter how hard you tried...until finally, Chris mastered enough power to orb back to the manor."  
  
"Oh my god..." Piper breathed. "But didn't we look for him? I'd have never stopped until I was sure he was safe at home!"  
  
"You didn't stop, not even when Leo couldn't sense him. After about a week everyone was sure he was dead, but you and your sisters kept looking...He was nowhere to be found. They'd placed him on another plane."  
  
Piper was sobbing now, the scene frozen before her eyes.  
  
"I'll orb you to when they found him, but after that you'd better call it a night. I REALLY am getting sick of this. _REALLY_."  
  
((()))  
  
A/N—How'd you like this chappie? Review, please! I always enjoy reviews! Lol. Thanks for all the wonderful reviews so far, everyone. Now, excuse me while I go pick out a wedding dress...Hey, peeps, we need bridesmaids and flower girls. Who's up for it? Lol. 


	32. Bugging Brian

Disclaimer: -yawn- I don't –yawns again- own anything. Only Drew and my –YAAAWN- wedding ring. God, it's like one in the morning or something...- snores and falls asleep on keyboard-  
  
((()))  
  
"Okay, okay," Piper said impatiently. "Orb me."  
  
With a sigh, Brian grabbed her by the arm and orbed to the attic again, only the scene had changed. Future Piper sat on the floor sobbing with the Book of Shadows on her lap, flipping hopelessly through the pages without really looking at them. She looked weary and tired, and her entire face illuminated with tears that apparently had no end. A slightly pregnant Phoebe stood scrying on the globe, same expression on her face. Paige wasn't in the attic, presumably catering to Mel and Colin and Wyatt.  
  
"It's been two weeks," Piper sobbed. "Two whole weeks. My baby is probably dead! I'm a horrible mother, I let those demons take him!"  
  
"There was nothing you could've done, Piper," Phoebe soothed. "It'll be alright. We'll find him. He'll come home."  
  
"We've tried everything. He's gone, Phoebe." Piper threw the Book of Shadows aside and banged her fist on the floor. "Why do we have to be witches, Phoebe? Why did they have to take him away? He can barely defend himself, he's all alone—"  
  
The faint sound of weak orbs filled the attic. Chris appeared, bleeding and scarred. He looked like he hadn't slept in years and his clothes were torn and seemed to big for him. Everything about him seemed miserable and tormented. "I did it..." he moaned in triumph before collapsing on the floor.  
  
"CHRIS!" Piper shrieked. "PHOEBE, PAIGE! HE'S BACK!" She ran over to him. "Oh my god, what the hell happened to him? My baby, my baby..." She cradled him in her arms, sobbing louder than ever before.  
  
"LEO!" Phoebe screamed. "LEO, GET DOWN HERE! CHRIS IS BACK!"  
  
Leo orbed down. "Thank goodness...Dammit, what happened to him?" he demanded, bending down to heal him. The wounds and scars faded but he didn't wake up. "The poor kid is exhausted. Let him sleep. Oh my god, I'm so glad he's still alive..."  
  
Piper was sobbing so loudly and shaking that Phoebe took the liberty of gently lifting Chris up off the floor and carrying him into the room. Leo and Piper followed, but Leo seemed a bit reluctant.  
  
"Piper, the elders are..."  
  
"You kn-know what, Leo?" Piper snapped. "I d-don't care. Your son needs you more than those s-stupid damn elders do. He just got back home, Leo, and I'm s-sure if there's anyone he'd want to see, it'd be you."  
  
"I'm sorry. I can't stay," Leo said pleadingly.  
  
Piper pushed him out of her way. "Just go. I don't care. Go ahead and let your son down."  
  
"Piper..."  
  
"Just go!"  
  
Leo gave his son one last look of longing before his eyes completely glazed over and he orbed Up There.  
  
"What...?" past Piper gasped.  
  
"It's the spell Wyatt cast. He tried it when he was six and it didn't work fully since he was too young—see, in this time, the spell makes Leo just avoid Chris. He still loves him and wouldn't hurt him. Wyatt fixes the spell when he's older, which brought us to...the other crap you saw." Brian yawned. "After this, you're done. Got it?"  
  
Piper nodded.  
  
"Good. And no offense or anything, but PLEASE don't come back!!"  
  
Piper grinned. "Sure...Just expect us the next time a crazed neurotic half- whitelighter comes to the future with a lot of secrets, okay?" She sniffled, surprising herself. In all the action she was watching, she didn't even realizing that she was crying too.  
  
Future Piper was gazing lovingly and little Chris on the bed, stroking his hair. Phoebe, seeing that Piper wanted to be alone, left the room to go tell Paige and the kids that Chris was back.  
  
Brian sped up the scene. Future Piper stayed by the bedside for eight or so hours, just staring at her son. Eventually Chris groaned and his eyes opened.  
  
"Am I really home?" he asked in a scratchy voice that seemed worn out from screaming.  
  
"You're really home, sweetie," said Piper, relieved. "Oh, I was so worried Chris...I love you so much, I am so sorry those demons got you..."  
  
"It wasn't your fault." Chris tried to sit up but quickly lied back down. "Mommy, I can orb all the way now," he said. "I did it."  
  
"Yes, you did do it, didn't you?" Piper laughed, tears streaming down her face. "I am so proud of you, Chris. You really are a fighter."  
  
"Aw, how lovey-dovey cute," Brian said in a mock-squealing voice. "Can you please go away now?"  
  
"You are so heartless!" Piper protested, stepping on Brian's foot in her heels.  
  
"OW! That's the thanks I get for orbing you all across space and time? Well fine, be that way!"  
  
"Thank-you-very-much, Brian," Piper said between clenched teeth. "Now orb me home."  
  
"It's about time..."  
  
He grabbed her by the hand and they orbed into the sitting room again, where Chris lay now, fast asleep and undisturbed.  
  
"It's weird, seeing him here," said Brian, showing a touch of emotion for once. (COUGH COUGH I'm beginning not to like Brian very much myself, so I decided to make him nice ONCE.) "He looks so...different, I guess. Older, but not in an age kind of way. In a...responsible kind of way."  
  
"I guess I won't step on your foot again. You can leave."  
  
Brian orbed away.  
  
Piper ran a hand through Chris' hair, watching him sleep. He looked so peaceful. She was glad; maybe in his sleep he didn't have the weight of the world on his shoulders. Maybe in his sleep he was normal and everything was the way he hoped it would turn out after he changed the future.  
  
She sighed and turned off the light, headed back up the stairs for bed.  
  
((()))  
  
Chris woke up in the morning feeling quite refreshed. Nothing had gone wrong within the past...he checked his watch. 8:00. Nothing bad had happened in the past eight hours! Oh boy! He grinned and sat up on the couch.  
  
Footsteps came down the stairs. Phoebe smiled at him, headed into the kitchen. "I'm gonna make breakfast," she offered.  
  
"Noooo, that's really okay," Chris said quickly, bouncing up off of the couch and practically racing her to the stove. "Phoebe, I don't think your allowed to use the cooking utensils. Or has that rule not been created yet in this time?"  
  
She cocked an eyebrow. "A rule forbidding me to cook? My, my, I must be special. Funny, what you'll reveal when you're not keeping all these secrets from us..."  
  
"Hey, I didn't keep that from you to avoid future consequences...I'm only telling you now to avoid future food poisoning."  
  
Phoebe scoffed playfully and smacked him with the spatula.  
  
"Let me take that," said Chris, prying the spatula from her fingers. "I'm Piper's son, I can cook. You, on the other hand..." He shuddered. "We almost missed the biggest test of the year eating your food, Aunt Phoebe."  
  
"Ooo, I like the sound of that!" she squealed. "'Aunt' Phoebe. Cool! I can't wait until you and Wyatt are old enough to call me that. Along with the twins and B—" Her face seemed to light up brighter than the sun. "Hey, if Prue's a whitelighter in your time, then she's a whitelighter in ours, right? Lemme call her—"  
  
"Not quite, actually. She's still in training."  
  
"Oh," she said, slightly put out.  
  
Chris continued making pancakes and Phoebe and Chris sat at the table eating since no one else was up yet.  
  
"Good pancakes, Chris," Phoebe said, a mouthful of them preventing her from speaking normally. "Bery good."  
  
"Thanks...I guess."  
  
She swallowed. "Well, I gotta go to work now, but Chris..." She gave him a serious glance. "I want to talk when I get back. For real this time."  
  
Chris nodded. He hated living with empaths. They thought they knew everything...  
  
((()))  
  
A/N—I'd make a semi-normal length Author's Note but I'm way too tired, so good night... 


	33. Yesteryear Lingers

Disclaimer: Once again, I own Drew and my ring and that's it. Get offa my case already! Lol.  
  
((()))  
  
Piper came downstairs some time later to see the dishes in the sink and pancakes left for Leo, Paige, Wyatt and herself on the table. There was a note next to them which read:  
  
Had to get groceries, out of ingredients. Took the car. YES, we have driver's licenses in the future. -Chris  
  
Piper laughed. She never did get to see Chris driving in their little quest...it must have been a riot. "Paige, Leo!" she called. "Breakfast is ready!" She shifted Wyatt in her arms and put him in his highchair, putting some cut-up pancake on his plate. "There you go, Wyatt."  
  
Leo and Paige orbed down, Paige still in her pajamas and yawning loudly. "Pancakes? It's been a while since we had a decent meal."  
  
"Chris made it, actually."  
  
"Where'd he go?" asked Leo.  
  
"Don't worry, he went to the grocery store...something NORMAL for once."  
  
Leo laughed nervously. "Does he have an id for 2004?" he questioned nervously. "You know, if anything happens to him then people will wonder why the hell he's from the year 2027!"  
  
"Don't worry..." said Paige, yawning. "Man, he didn't make coffee..." She yawned louder.  
  
"You're addicted," said Piper flatly.  
  
"I know..." She opened the cabinet to retrieve a mug and started brewing the coffee. "Coffee good," she mumbled incoherently.  
  
"Right. Well, help yourselves to the pancakes. I'm sure they're not poisonous."  
  
The front door clicked open and Chris walked in with two bags of groceries. "You didn't have any of Wyatt's diapers left and Phoebe mentioned something about being low on cereal so I got some at the store," he explained. He looked over to Leo and basically read the look on his face, adding quickly, "I have an ID for this time, don't worry." He held it up triumphantly.  
  
"That's...kind of morally wrong," Leo said doubtfully. "It's against the law, Chris."  
  
Chris stifled back a laugh.  
  
"What?" Leo demanded.  
  
"Oh, nothing...it's just that you were the supplier of the fake id, Leo. If anyone's responsible for me carrying this around, it's you." He grinned but his smile quickly faded, remembering how Leo had died a short time after that, right before Chris traveled to the past.  
  
"I see..." Piper laughed. "Leo, the dangerous lawbreaker...We may have to take you into custody," she joked.  
  
"Go ahead...just don't tell the elders," he chuckled.  
  
"Right."  
  
Jingle, jingle.  
  
"Um...gotta go," he said apologetically. "I'll try to be back by lunch."  
  
"And I have to go to my temp job—I'm already super late!!" Paige threw on her coat and ran out the door, coffee and a stray pancake still in hand.  
  
"Yeah, and I have to go set up for tonight at the P3. You know, Friday's always the busiest night of the week and all...Can you baby-sit Wyatt while I'm gone?" she asked Chris, helping herself to another pancake as well.  
  
"Sure. Got nothing better to do," he said with a shrug.  
  
Piper was about to leave, but she paused. "Hey, just out of curiosity, can you still rapid-accelerate?"  
  
Chris grinned.  
  
"Uh-huh." He rapid-accelerated next to her at the door and grabbed her keys from the hook on the wall. "You forgot these."  
  
Wyatt giggled from the playpen, amused with Chris' ability. Chris looked back and grinned at his baby older brother.  
  
"Ha!" Piper laughed. "Well, gotta go...I'll see you two boys later."  
  
"Bye mom," said Chris.  
  
"Bye Chris." She waved at Wyatt with an idiotic I'm-so-happy grin and left the house.  
  
"Well, kid, guess it's just you and me," Chris laughed.  
  
"Mommy," Wyatt whined. "Mommy."  
  
"Hey, that was your first word!" Chris exclaimed. "Uh...how about you don't say that again until mom gets back, okay? Is that alright?"  
  
Wyatt giggled, seeing Chris bend down to his level and acting so goofy. They played with the blocks in the playpen for a little while and eventually had lunch. It was about two o'clock and they were still alone in the house.  
  
"Naptime," Chris announced. Normally Wyatt would resist but today he merely yawned in response to the daily ritual. Chris grinned and picked him up, walking upstairs to the nursery.  
  
Chris put Wyatt into bed and sat by his brother's crib for a little while, looking out the window in surprise. He couldn't believe it was raining so hard out there. He hoped that the sisters would get through the traffic all right, or he'd probably be stuck here forever baby-sitting Wyatt.  
  
BOOM! A clap of thunder shook the house a bit. There was a flash of lightning, illuminated in the already dark sky. Wyatt woke up and started screaming, alarmed by the noise. Chris picked him up.  
  
"It's just a storm, Wyatt. Nothing to be worried about, okay? You wanna go back to sleep?"  
  
Wyatt buried his face into Chris' shoulder, an obvious "no."  
  
"I see what you mean. Okay, let's go downstairs and fix up a snack...want some goldfish? I know you like goldfish!" He couldn't help but add, "You're addicted to 'em when you're older, at least."  
  
Wyatt pointed down the stairs, indicating that he wanted to be carried into the kitchen for food. Chris complied, opening the pantry. Wyatt reached out his hands for the crackers. Chris grinned and set the pack of goldfish on the tray of Wyatt's high chair, making sure to strap him in tightly. After seeing Prue fall out of this same high chair many times, he didn't want to take any chances. He grimaced at the thought of Prue. She was dead, of course, just like the rest of them...but she'd been dead for a while. Only because of that spell it seemed like yesterday. His entire life felt like yesterday.  
  
He absentmindedly poured some crackers into a bowl and handed them to Wyatt, getting a juice box out of the fridge and trying to shake off the memories again. Wyatt seemed to notice that something was wrong, so he stared at Chris in such a way that forced him to break out into a grin.  
  
They sat munching on goldfish for a couple of minutes in silence.  
  
BAM! More thunder rolled through. Chris saw a flash and all of the lights went out.  
  
Wyatt screamed again, scared by the sudden change of atmosphere.  
  
"You're okay, Wyatt," Chris assured him, fumbling with the high chair straps in the dark. He heard the bowl clatter at his feet, spilling the crackers all over, causing Chris to step on them with a few crunches while trying to find a flashlight. "It's alright, nothing bad is happening, it's just a power outage. No demons. We're safe."  
  
He finally found the flashlight in the drawer where Piper usually kept it in the future and switched it on. Wyatt stopped crying, seeing Chris' face in the light and knowing that he was there.  
  
"You're okay. It's okay, Wyatt...no demons. See?" He pointed the flashlight so its beam traced the room. He walked into the foyer and the living room just in case, but there were no signs of intruders. It was clearly your everyday, normal power outage.  
  
Wyatt was still whimpering. Chris remembered that Leo had already said he'd try to be back by lunch. It was three in the afternoon—what difference would it make if he called for him?  
  
"Leo!" Chris called. He made sure his tone didn't sound too desperate or anything, letting Leo know that it wasn't urgent.  
  
Leo didn't orb down right away, but Chris was pretty certain he'd heard. Knowing that Leo was probably engaged in a meeting, he sat down with Wyatt on the couch and picked the radio up off the table. Apparently the storm would be over in the morning, at which point they would start working to restore the power in the city.  
  
Chris called Piper on her cell phone just in case. "Hello?" she answered.  
  
"Hey, it's Chris. I'm using the spare cell. There's been a power outage here—how about you?"  
  
"We've still got power, fortunately. Is Wyatt okay?"  
  
"Yeah, just a little scared. He was just about to fall asleep when the storm started so we had a snack—then the power went out. You don't think it's demonic, do you?"  
  
Piper laughed audibly on the other end. "You're so paranoid, Chris! It's just a storm. Don't worry."  
  
"If you're sure. Should you call your sister? What's Paige's temp job today?"  
  
"I'd call them but I'm super-busy at the moment. Gotta go. Bye!"  
  
"Bye." He dialed a few numbers and got Phoebe on the phone.  
  
"Hello, Phoebe Halliwell for the Bay Mirror. May I help you?" she asked in a mysterious, teasing voice.  
  
"Geez, you sound so formal and...weird. Ditch the freaky hellos, you're scaring me AND Wyatt over here!"  
  
"Chill out, you called on my cell and I have caller ID. I knew it was you so I decided to test my new office greeting on you while I could. Guess it's not so good, huh? So, how are my little nephews? Do you guys have power over there?"  
  
"Not anymore. I take it you don't either?"  
  
"Nope. We lost power about five minutes ago. I'm using good old fashioned wireless technology to type up my column..." She laughed. "You guys don't need anything, right?"  
  
"Yeah, we're fine." He paused. "Do you think you're gonna be able to make it home, or should I orb you?"  
  
"I'm not off work for another couple of hours, but if the storm's still going I'll call for you. Tell Wyatt I said hi! Love ya both, bye!"  
  
Chris grinned. It'd been a while since he'd heard that. "Bye Aunt Phoebe."  
  
Chris sighed. "Well, Paige didn't take her cell so I can't call her...but she'd orb here if anything was wrong, right?" he asked Wyatt, as if the toddler could respond.  
  
Chris didn't know exactly what to do now that the power was out, so he sat on the couch, waiting for Leo. Wyatt fell asleep in his arms and the thunderstorm raged on for another two hours or so before Phoebe started calling for him to pick her up. He gently shifted Wyatt in his arms and orbed with him to wherever Phoebe was calling from.  
  
He was a bit surprised to see her sopping wet and in her office.  
  
"Uh, Phoebe? What would've happened if someone saw me orb in here?"  
  
"Nobody's here," she grumbled.  
  
"Why are you all wet?"  
  
"Tried to catch a taxi. Those people aren't very nice! They splashed a big puddle in my face!"  
  
Chris laughed and Phoebe couldn't help but giggle too at the absurdity. "Oh, and pick up Piper on the way. The club lost power and nobody came to party at light-less place...talk about your blind dates..."  
  
"Okay." Chris grabbed her hand and they orbed backstage to the P3, where they sought at Piper. She was at the bar counter, washing it with a rag and a flashlight in the other hand.  
  
"There you are!" she greeted them. "Sorry I didn't call you earlier, Chris, but I was figuring Wyatt was asleep and I didn't want to wake him." She held out her hands and Chris gave her the still fast-asleep Wyatt. Chris grabbed both of their hands and orbed them home to see Paige in the living room of the manor.  
  
"Houston, we've got a problem," she informed them.  
  
((()))  
  
A/N—I'm seeing a whole bunch of really cool Chris fics being updated and published, but my comp has gone nutso and I can't review anything without it freezing! I'm super sorry to all those wonderful authors I can't review for!! I swear the instant it's back up I shall review EVERYTHING—I'm loving all the stories that are coming through!! 


	34. Dead Rising

Disclaimer: --sighs-- I don't own nuttin, kay? Kay.  
  
"Which would be...?" Piper prompted, looking around the room and seeing nothing dangerous or threatening. "I don't see anything wrong but a power outage."  
  
"Demons," said Paige.  
  
Piper groaned. "What? Today, of all days..."  
  
"The power outage wasn't demonic and there aren't any demons here. It was my temp job. There were some demons there, and they have these freakish powers...well, it was supposed to be an after-party for a wedding and I was a waitress and these demons came in with the power to blow things up and..." She gulped. "Bring back the dead."  
  
There was a pause in the room. "Did you see Prue?" Phoebe couldn't help but ask.  
  
Paige shook her head.  
  
"Prue's a whitelighter. She's already been resurrected," Chris explained. "But I guess she could've seen Patty or Penny. I'll go look them up in the Book of Shadows."  
  
The sisters didn't follow him.  
  
"You guys, Chris has to sit this one out," Paige insisted. "They don't just resurrect the dead—they can resurrect the dead from the future."  
  
"You mean...?" Piper trailed off.  
  
Paige nodded. "As long as it's in your memory, you can see anyone you know that is dead. We have all those deaths in Chris' past in our memories, too, so I saw them all. It's not safe with all these memories so fresh in Chris' mind..."  
  
"It wouldn't be good for him to see them," Phoebe finished. "It's like when we couldn't see Prue after she died or we'd never let go. To Chris, all of them basically just died a week ago—it'd be way too soon for him to see them again."  
  
"It's utter chaos over there. Imagine, a hundred people that all know at least one if not more person that's died in their life...and BAM! There they all were."  
  
Chris suddenly came bounding down the stairs. "They're the demons of loss. They're not exactly bad, but they're not good either. When they sense pain or regret over a loss, they resurrect the dead to satisfy the person for a limited time. The only problem though, is that they're addicted to resurrecting. Once they bring one person back they want to bring back more. Somebody in the wedding—most likely the bride or groom—was sad about a loss or missing someone. It attracts them. They only surface once every hundred years or so; the last time was in the late 1800's...It took pretty much all the witches in the area to rid them."  
  
"The power of three can do it," said Piper.  
  
"Need any help?" Chris asked eagerly.  
  
Piper tried not to wince. She didn't want to lie to him but she knew it was for the best that he didn't know... "Nah, we got it. Can you watch Wyatt for us, please? I'll be upstairs making potions."  
  
"You don't need potions. Lower-level demons, they can be vanquished with the power to blow things up like Piper can."  
  
"Then why are they so hard to vanquish?" asked Paige.  
  
"Because you have to vanquish the souls they resurrected for them to rest in peace again," Chris explained. "It's complicated. But I can help! When I was about seventeen I learned how to speed up time like Piper —"  
  
"That's okay, Chris," said Phoebe, a little too quickly. "Watch Wyatt. We'll be back within the hour. Bye!" she called as Paige orbed the three of them away.  
  
Chris looked at the spot they had just been in, put-out. It wasn't fair! He'd had his powers much longer than they had by at least sixteen years. He laughed at the thought: In this time, he had much more experience with demons than the sisters did. Ha!  
  
Wyatt had been placed in his playpen, Piper's flashlight from the club still brightening the dark room. He was relieved that the power outage wasn't demonic, but something still nagged in the back of his head. Something the sisters wanted to hide from him...  
  
He shook it off and turned his attention to Wyatt. "Little rascal," he muttered good-naturedly at the sight of him telekinetically floating blocks in the air. He still couldn't believe the sisters ditched him with a toddler. Not to mention that he had no baby-sitting experience with kids this age...He'd only baby-sit for Prue and the twins when they were little, and occasionally Bindle and Bailey, but none of them were this small at the time.  
  
Well, along with all those bad memories of his family dying, he supposed there were some good ones. Funny times like when the twins lost control of their orbing and ended up somewhere in Paris, or Prue would dare them to think of an emotion really hard in their heads so she could guess it, or when Bailey would clone himself and trick Bindle...  
  
He smiled. He could even remember all those rainy days that he and Piper would make cookies or read stories when he was little. She would have Wyatt and Chris sit on the couch with her in between the two of them and she'd read all through the storms—storms like this one.  
  
There was even a time when the power went out, just like it had today. He grinned, remembering—it was the day that Prue was born. Prue had to be born under the Nexus just like Wyatt, with the inconvenience of no transportation. Chris was only three at the time and he and Wyatt had to be watched by Paige in another room, along with the twins, who were almost a year old.  
  
Paige used to call the four and a half years in between Prue's and Wyatt's birth the "baby boom" since they were all born one after the other. She said that she could hardly remember a time where one of them wasn't pregnant after Prue was born.  
  
Unfortunately, "baby boom" meant "demon boom" as well, and they had quite a tricky time defending Prue since she was the first baby born in the Halliwell generation without the ability to orb. But they all stuck together and pulled through...  
  
Wyatt whimpered slightly, catching Chris' attention. Chris ruffled his hair. "What's up, Wyatt?"  
  
Wyatt held out his hands, offering them to Chris. Chris looked at the oddly intense gaze that the toddler was wearing, but took his hands anyways.  
  
He didn't expect, though, for Wyatt to orb them away from the manor.  
  
"Chris, what the hell are you doing here with Wyatt?" Piper demanded, fending off some attacking souls. They seemed to be in a restaurant that was empty of all of its guests, pitiful wedding decorations being destroyed.  
  
"Ask him, he was the one that orbed me here!" Chris accused of the baby, giving Wyatt a death glare.  
  
"Well, then un-orb yourself before Wyatt gets—"  
  
Chris didn't hear the rest of what she said. Figures were slowly forming all around them; short, tall, old, young—  
  
Chris realized what was happening and cried out, trying to orb away...but Wyatt wouldn't let them. He was reaching out for Piper to hold him and apparently wouldn't leave without her.  
  
"Wyatt, please—" Chris begged.  
  
He was too late. Flying souls of his entire family swarmed him, passing through him and creating a whirlwind of spirits. He couldn't see—they were all over—  
  
Wyatt began to scream when suddenly the spirits settled down and a few began to fade; Bianca the first, then Leo. Assumable because they were the first to die, of course...but the longing on their faces was still more than Chris could bear. They were all speaking in whispers, trying to get his attention, but he couldn't decipher anything since they were all speaking at once.  
  
"Vanquish them!" Piper screamed, seeing what was happening.  
  
Chris froze. The rest of them didn't fade...it was apparent what he had to do, but he couldn't. He wanted to be with them again, he didn't think he could handle watching them die in front of his eyes one more time...  
  
But then the whispering stopped. They all turned to him, eyes full of deceit, and began to attack him. Wyatt orbed away to Piper and Chris felt his knees buckle under the pressure of their fighting. The whispers were accusations...they were telling him how it was all his fault that everything was so wrong, that it was his fault for being alive...  
  
Finally, he came to his senses. These spirits weren't his family—they were imposters! He vanquished them all with a quick swipe of his hands, then stared at his palms in shock. They dissolved, screaming, and the room was quiet.  
  
"I killed them," he said to himself in disbelief. "I just killed them all again."  
  
((()))  
  
A/N—MWAHAH! There shall be a reappearance of Leo most definitely in the next chapter. MWHAHAH AGAIN! 


	35. Enemy's Return

Disclaimer: Yah...don't own anything...PLASTIC KNIVES WILL FIX THAT...alright, that made no sense, but still...  
  
((()))  
  
"Chris..." said Phoebe softly, making her way over to Chris.  
  
"You didn't kill them," said Piper. "None of this is your fault. It was just a demon..."  
  
"Yeah," said Chris shakily. "A demon. C-can I...? Just...I'm going to be back in a little while. I'm fine, I just...I have to..." He put his head down to hide his tears and orbed away.  
  
"Follow him," Piper ordered, grabbing Paige by the arm.  
  
"No," Phoebe contradicted. "Piper, I trust him. He's not going to do anything dangerous, I'm pretty sure he just needs to think. What he just said, he meant. He wouldn't lie deliberately without me knowing about it."  
  
"So what do we do?" asked Piper, heartbroken.  
  
"Nothing," Phoebe told her sister, wincing because she knew that it wasn't the answer Piper wanted to hear. "I'm sorry, but we can't do anything for him until he's ready."  
  
((()))  
  
Chris sighed; the office room of the P3 around him was utterly dark from the power outage and he couldn't see a thing. Tears were falling down his cheeks but he didn't bother to rub them away. Nobody could see, and it felt better letting go of all the sadness after holding it in so long...  
  
It was hard, seeing them die all over again—that he could admit. And he knew it wasn't his fault. It couldn't have been prevented, otherwise they would've wreaked havoc all around San Francisco. But he wanted to be able to talk to them for a little while. He missed them all, and he'd never actually gotten a chance to say good-bye.  
  
"Chris," said a soft voice from a few feet away.  
  
He jumped in surprise and whipped around, only to see nothing but the overwhelming darkness. "Who's there?" he asked quietly, refusing to show the quiver in his voice.  
  
"It's me. Prue," she responded. "Little Prue."  
  
"I thought I—"  
  
"You did. That was a demon you vanquished, or at least a part of it. The clones of me and the others were among them but I am not a clone. I am...a messenger, in a way."  
  
"Prue?"  
  
She laughed, slapping him. "No duh, you moron! Didn't you listen to a thing I just said?"  
  
Chris laughed, too, and almost felt himself being pulled back to all those careless, happy years ago.  
  
"The journey has been long and hard for you. As cruel as it seems, it was almost luckier for us to be killed right off in the beginning then to stick around, alive, and have to go through what torture you and Bianca fought." She paused. "When you're dead, you don't bring your guilt or fear or anger with you. It's just...peace. And then you try to bring peace to the remaining on earth."  
  
"How...how is everyone?"  
  
"They told me to say hi," said Prue with a hint of sarcasm, pretending it was as if they were merely on vacation for a long time. "We're always rooting for you, Chris. We watch you all the time, as creepy as that seems—"  
  
"Hey!"  
  
They both giggled.  
  
"Anyways...I'm supposed to tell you something."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Bianca didn't die. Neither did Leo. That's why they faded away without you vanquishing them."  
  
"Bianca's...alive?" Chris seemed ten times happier than he was a moment ago.  
  
"Wyatt healed her. Chris, don't look for her. It might encourage her to kill you. She...can't be brought back to the light."  
  
"But...why?"  
  
"She and Wyatt are married...and she's pregnant."  
  
Chris' fury seemed to light the room on fire. "SHE'S PREGNANT?! SHE AND WYATT—"  
  
"But that's just the thing, Chris!" Prue exclaimed before he could continue. "It's not Wyatt's child!"  
  
"Then who's is it?" he demanded.  
  
"It's...yours."  
  
"But I—but we—"  
  
"Right before you left, Chris. I won't go into detail, but Bianca was pregnant, even coming out here to get you, but she didn't know. They first realized it when Wyatt healed Bianca and was forced to heal yet another life inside of her. He thinks it's his baby, but it's not. You can't come looking for them or you'll die...Bianca's his now."  
  
"NO!"  
  
"Chris...Chris..." came a different voice. Leo. The room was shaking.  
  
"Damn it, I have to go...but Chris, remember the warning—don't come looking for them! They'll find you first!"  
  
The shaking was harder. "Prue? PRUE?!"  
  
"Chris!"  
  
Chris opened his eyes and winced at the blinding light. Apparently the power had come back on, and he was still sitting against the wall, Leo hovering over him worriedly.  
  
"You were dreaming," Leo explained. "I couldn't wake you up."  
  
"Prue..." Chris looked all around the room, searching.  
  
"Chris, she's—"  
  
"I know. But she was here, she was giving me a message..." His eyes welled up with tears of betrayal. "But it doesn't matter. I don't even understand why I had to know all that, anyways."  
  
'You'll know soon enough,' said a voice in his head. He shook it off.  
  
"Are you okay? I heard what happened with those demons."  
  
"Yeah, fine, thanks."  
  
They paused for a moment, staring at the ground. "When did the power come back on?"  
  
"A few minutes ago. I'm surprised it didn't wake you, actually. So, uh, are you ready to go back to the manor?"  
  
"Sure."  
  
"Hey, Chris, what's bugging you?" asked Leo, seeing Chris' troubled expression. "You look a little disturbed."  
  
"Nah, just...Just a weird dream." But he knew it wasn't "just a weird dream." It was more than that. And if there was supposed to be a reason he couldn't go find Bianca, what was it? 'They'll find you first...' What was that supposed to mean?  
  
"Alright. Let's go then." Leo gave Chris one last concerned glance and they orbed away.  
  
"Chris, there you are," said Piper, pulling him out a chair. "We're just having dinner. Hungry?"  
  
"Yeah, thanks. Where's Wyatt and Phoebe?"  
  
Just then, Phoebe came into the room holding a distressed Wyatt and trying to pry a bag of goldfish out of his hands. "Wyatt, no, you can't have those!" she scolded. However, it was Wyatt who won the battle when she finally set him down in the high chair and let him have the crackers. She sat down in exasperation, exclaiming in wonder, "He's addicted to the stuff! Since when does Wyatt love goldfish?"  
  
Chris cleared his throat, stifling back a laugh. When they all stared at him, he replied guiltily, "It was bound to happen someday...he's addicted to it in the future, too."  
  
They laughed. "Oh, and did you hear? There's a personal rule that I'm not allowed to touch kitchen utensils."  
  
"Starting today," Paige giggled.  
  
Once the laughter died down, Chris admitted, "Okay, I made that one up...but it's not personal gain, that one really does help the future in more ways than one!!"  
  
The dinner continued with Chris pretending that nothing went wrong and avoiding Phoebe's awkward glances. It was all pretty normal...but little did they know...  
  
Little Prue hid in the doorway, unseen by everyone but Wyatt. She grinned menacingly, a very un-Prue like grin for both generations of Halliwells. She kept her eye on Chris and suddenly shape-shifted into a pregnant Bianca.  
  
"Yes, Chris. Don't come after Bianca...because she'll come after you."  
  
A dagger appeared in her hands.  
  
((()))  
  
A/N—MWAHAHA!! I like cliffies. Suffer my wrath! R&R! 


	36. Baby's Future

Disclaimer: DON'T MAKE ME SHOOT THE COMPUTER. I don't own Charmed.  
  
"You ready to talk, Chris?" asked Phoebe as everyone headed up to bed. She could tell that her nephew was antsy about something. He seemed...well, she couldn't really tell. It was a whole mix of emotion, from happiness to betrayal.  
  
"Actually, I'm kinda tired, Aunt Phoebe."  
  
"They know?" Bianca gasped in the next room. Nobody heard her, of course. She made sure not to blow her cover and risk getting the pesky Charmed Ones on her tail before she completed her mission Wyatt sent her on.  
  
Kill Chris. Make sure that he never gets a chance to claim the baby that would rightfully be her own.  
  
"Those stupid messengers," she thought to herself. "Prue, trying to meddle like that. I'm lucky that I was able to stop her in time, before she could warn Chris I was coming...The bad part is that now he knows about the baby. He knows about our daughter." Bianca grinned slyly, however, remembering how she so cunningly stopped Prue and shape-shifted into her with the baby's powers. Chris didn't see...after all, it was dark from the power outage.  
  
"Chris, you can't put this off forever," said Phoebe.  
  
"I know...just not tonight."  
  
"Chris..."  
  
"Phoebe, I really don't want to talk about it."  
  
"Okay...try to get some rest. Tomorrow night for sure!" she cried indignantly, headed up the stairs to her bedroom.  
  
"Tomorrow," Chris mumbled, curling up on the couch. He fell asleep instantly.  
  
Bianca's grin widened. Yes, this wasn't the first time that Wyatt had sent her to kill Chris, but this time it was different. Last time she was fifteen, barely a woman, and scared beyond her wildest dreams. Her conscience—Ha! How worthless it was!—had stopped her from murdering him, along with her petty love for the weakling. And after all that, the fool Gideon had gotten to him first.  
  
This time she wouldn't fail. There was no conscience. No love. Only love and devotion to Wyatt, and all they could fight for to bring the world under their control...  
  
So why the hell was she still standing over his bed? Why couldn't she stab?  
  
Just nervous, she thought. Normally killing came so naturally—demon attack, the rage bubbling in her veins—she'd attack right back.  
  
But Chris was so defenseless. He wouldn't even see it coming. What kind of triumph was it to kill an unsuspecting man that never had a chance to put up a fight?  
  
"I trust you, Bianca." Wyatt's voice lingered in her mind. "Don't screw it up this time. Do it for our family."  
  
"For our family," she whispered, repeating his words as if they justified her crime. She couldn't help but add, "I'm sorry, Chris."  
  
She held up the dagger, so engaged in her task that she didn't hear the footsteps coming down the stairs. She swung, and—froze.  
  
"Chris!" Piper screamed.  
  
Chris jolted up in surprise, face inches away from the blade. He gasped when Piper turned on the lights. "Bianca! How could she?"  
  
"I thought she was dead!" Piper exclaimed in anger. "PHOEBE! PAIGE! GET DOWN HERE!" She looked at Bianca in disgust. "Why is she frozen?"  
  
"Because Wyatt brought her back to life as a filthy demon like himself," he snarled in hatred. "Prue told me in a dream."  
  
"What—?" Phoebe and Paige gawked at the scene and finally Phoebe held her head in her hands.  
  
"Chris, why the hell are you so angry?!"  
  
"She's evil," Piper explained, "Wyatt brought her back and made her evil. She was trying to kill Chris, if you didn't notice the athame!"  
  
Phoebe leaned sideways and saw the weapon. "Oh my god, she tried to kill you again? She's supposed to be dead..." They saw Bianca's baby just starting to show.  
  
"It's my baby," Chris said softly. "But Wyatt thinks it's his." His face turned to one of anger. "I can't believe her! She knows it's not his baby, she knows what we fought for, something inside of her has to know that she's wrong!" He leapt off the couch, narrowly avoiding the knife in his carelessness. "I'll kill him when I get back there!"  
  
"You're not going back," said Piper firmly. "We're going to vanquish Bianca."  
  
"No we're not!" Phoebe cried, "That's Chris' baby! We can't vanquish an innocent!"  
  
"Oh yes we can—" Piper cut in.  
  
"Piper, do you really—"  
  
"STOP IT!" Chris interrupted them. "I don't care about Bianca. I do care about the baby, though. And we can't vanquish her...maybe we can turn her back."  
  
"It won't be as easy as it was last time—she's not as young as she was then!" Paige couldn't help but snap. She instantly regretted her words when Chris winced in pain, remembering the last time she'd turned.  
  
"Unfreeze her," he ordered.  
  
"What?!"  
  
"Just do it!"  
  
Piper obeyed and flicked her wrist, ready to attack if she had to.  
  
"Don't do it, Bianca," said Chris.  
  
Bianca gasped in shock. Suddenly the lights had turned on and all three sisters swarmed around her, including Chris. "How'd you? Oh, never mind!"  
  
"Why were you trying to kill me?" Chris demanded, refusing to look down at her stomach.  
  
"You can't have her!" Bianca screamed. "I can't let you have our daughter, she's mine—mine and Wyatt's!"  
  
"That baby isn't Wyatt's and you know it," Chris growled, infuriated. "He's poisoned your mind, Bianca! He's turned you back to the dark side again and again...I don't trust you anymore! I hate you!"  
  
All three sisters plus Bianca were silenced in shock at these words.  
  
"You're destroying the future piece by piece, everything we ever fought for! I don't damn care if you're stubborn enough to believe that that baby is Wyatt's, I don't care if I never get to see the baby, but I do care about this: that that baby gets a future and a father she deserves. Wyatt will make sure that she never gets that!"  
  
Bianca didn't say anything, but a tear rolled down her cheek.  
  
"Leave," said Chris, cold and uncaring. Everybody was surprised to see him so bitter. "Go to the damn future of hell, raise our daughter how ever you like—just don't interfere with what I'm doing. For all of our sakes, including all the innocents and family that he killed! Or have you forgotten?! Maybe you just didn't care about the people that loved you unconditionally and accepted you in the Halliwell family, hm? Is that it?!"  
  
"Shut up!" Bianca cried. "Just shut up!"  
  
"I won't 'shut up' until I see you leave through that portal and SWEAR to me that you'll never come back."  
  
"I'm not leaving," said Bianca through her tears. "I'm not leaving until I kill you."  
  
"Then go ahead, kill me," Chris challenged. "You kill me, and there is no future. You kill me and our daughter won't have a father she can look up to. You kill me...and there will be no one to stop you from destroying yourself."  
  
Bianca gulped at those last words. "If you change our future, the baby will be gone," she choked. "She will have never existed because we wouldn't have met. It wasn't Piper that killed my mother—it was Wyatt. If Wyatt turns good, the baby won't..."  
  
"If you really did love me, that baby would exist, future changed or not. Soul mates always find each other again if they're truly in love. If you so fear that the baby will disappear, then you're doubting all that helped that baby be created." He took a deep, shuddering breath. "So, what'll it be? Walk through that portal and never come back, or wait for us to vanquish you?"  
  
Bianca shimmered away.  
  
"Don't look for me. If you love me you'll stay away," said Chris menacingly, orbing out of the living room. 


	37. Trusting Enemies

Disclaimer: What's it to ya? I don't own anything 'cept the characters I made up, some of which I find very COUGH.  
  
And I know I said I was going to wrap the story up, but some ideas popped in my head like light-bulbs and I had to keep it going. There's your explanation, Charmed Fan, if you really had to know! =D  
  
((()))  
  
"What do we do?" Piper sobbed. "She's going to kill him, she's going to kill my baby—"  
  
"Piper, please!" Phoebe interrupted. "We need to help Chris. We have to find him...nothing bad will happen."  
  
"Weren't you the one that was telling us not to go after him the last time he bolted?" asked Paige.  
  
"This is different. He'll hurt himself, he's not using his head. His actions were fueled by what his heart told him...and the heart can be deadly."  
  
"LEO!" Piper called. "LEO!"  
  
Leo orbed into the kitchen in his pajamas. "Piper, I was upstairs with Wyatt. What's going on?"  
  
"Bianca happened." Phoebe explained Bianca's sudden reappearance in their lives and the baby that came with it. "We're scared—we can't stop Bianca without killing the baby too. And if we can't stop Bianca..."  
  
"Then Chris' life is on the line," Leo finished. He closed his eyes in concentration. "I can almost sense him. Good news...he's in San Francisco. Bad news...San Francisco is a big city."  
  
((()))  
  
"What, did you think you could hide from me here? HERE, in OUR spot? OR have you forgotten about THAT, too?" Chris demanded. Bianca opened her mouth in protest but Chris stopped her. "Who do you think you are, Bianca? What have you become?"  
  
"I've become Wyatt's and I'm staying that way!" she cried indignantly. "Christopher Perry Halliwell, you are a fool! Can't you see? If you join Wyatt then you won't have to go to all this trouble. You wouldn't have go through all this..."  
  
"Oh, yeah? So I could go to this dandy, happy future with you and watch my daughter get trained to kill innocents with her not-so-biological 'father,' Wyatt?"  
  
"You can't have this baby! Wyatt thinks it's his!"  
  
"Since when do you care what Wyatt thinks?" Chris demanded. "Since when did you care in the least bit for Wyatt?"  
  
"Since he'll be around for our daughter!"  
  
"Oh, you think I'm gonna die? Well, at least I'll die in honor, knowing that at least I TRIED to save our future!"  
  
"Who do you think you are, superman? Give it up, Chris! This is getting you nowhere!"  
  
"Then what the hell do you suggest I do to fix it?!"  
  
Bianca bit her lip. "Nothing. Don't do anything. Let it be."  
  
"I almost would rather have you dead than so irrational as you are right now."  
  
More tears ran down Bianca's cheeks in frustration and anger. "I don't believe you. You love me."  
  
"I loved who you used to be, Bianca, but now you're turning out to be a traitor and a pathetic soon-to-be parent."  
  
"Fine, Chris. I'll help...take me to the office."  
  
Chris' eyes narrowed. "What makes me believe that you're lying?"  
  
"Have I ever lied to you before?"  
  
"Most definitely, on more than one occasion!" he yelled. "I can't trust you, as I said before!"  
  
"Trust me on this if you want to save the future!"  
  
Chris was a sucker for her fierce nature. He took her hand and orbed to the office of P3. She could help...maybe she'd turn back.  
  
"I'm kinda hungry," she complained the instant they arrived. "Have any of those little cartoon fruit snacks?"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Cravings," she muttered.  
  
"Oh. Well, we do have some crackers...goldfish, actually." He would've chuckled, but at the moment he felt too angry to do so.  
  
Chris leaned down into the counter, searching for something for Bianca to snack on. Bianca shimmered in behind him with the athame in hand, a grin unfurled across her woeful face. She felt crazy, spinning with rage, sadness, remorse, regret, doubt, fear, uncertainty...and it would all be over.  
  
She stabbed.  
  
As Chris cried out, she felt that the emotions didn't go away—they intensified. Her body wracked with sobs held in for so long, and she fell to her knees, the realization of what she had just done coming at her at full-force...  
  
She shimmered away.  
  
Chris clutched at his wound. The knife had gone straight through his back and plunged all the way into his stomach—he could feel the blade on the other end. Blood quickly gushed through his shirt and the pain became unbearable. He couldn't believe Bianca would do this to him!  
  
Their daughter...what about their daughter? All they'd ever fought for? All was lost...  
  
Everything went black.  
  
((()))  
  
"Somewhere in San Francisco?!" Piper nearly shrieked. "Try harder, damn it!"  
  
"Don't you think I'm trying?! I don't want anything to happen to Chris either! He's my son!" As if alerted by his fury, suddenly he located Chris. "The P3," he murmured.  
  
"What did you say?"  
  
"Chris. He's at the P3...and so is Bianca."  
  
"Orb us there!"  
  
Leo grabbed Piper and Paige grabbed Phoebe, the four of them orbing out together.  
  
"I don't see him anywhere!" Piper cried. They heard a wail of remorse vibrate through the empty club and looked over just in time to see Bianca shimmer away.  
  
"What did she do to him? Where is he?" Piper panicked.  
  
"I'm sure there's nothing wrong—" Phoebe tried to console her.  
  
"NOTHING WRONG?! I can feel it, Phoebe, there's something—"  
  
A low moan caught their attention. It was coming from the bar counter. Piper leaned over it and saw Chris unconscious, doubled over in agony, the handle of an athame sticking out of his back. Bianca had stabbed him.  
  
Love meant nothing to her.  
  
"CHRIS!" Piper shrieked, rushing to him. "LEO, heal him, now!"  
  
Leo was already at Chris' side before Piper could finish her sentence. He pulled the athame out of Chris' stomach, causing Chris to cry out, and began to heal him. The wound had barely begun to face away when Chris croaked,  
  
"Leave...me...stop...Bianca..."  
  
"What? Chris, relax, you're hurt. Bianca's gone," Piper soothed him.  
  
"Get...her...the manor..."  
  
"She's going back to the future!" Paige gasped in realization. She grabbed Phoebe's hand. "We'll stop her. You guys stay with Chris."  
  
Paige orbed away with Phoebe.  
  
Bianca apparently had more than one athame. She lay on the manor floor, bleeding to death, the knife plunged through her heart in suicide.  
  
"She..." Phoebe couldn't finish her sentence. She knew that the baby wouldn't live. "I thought that she loved that baby, I really did..." They ran over to Bianca, but it was apparent that she was already dead. In her pale, lifeless hands, she clutched a piece of paper. Written on it was a note...  
  
Chris,  
  
The baby is alive. It's spirit is to wander the manor until the correct day of her foretold birth—January second. On that day, use this spell to summon her back. She will be a newborn. She has been spared. Raise her well.  
  
--Bianca  
  
"The baby's alive..." Phoebe marveled. "This must be strong magic."  
  
"It's November the eighteenth. We've got two months..."  
  
Just then a portal opened, and in came...  
  
((()))  
  
Lol. I AM evil. 


	38. Fast Asleep

Disclaimer: Yada, yada, yada...I'll let you know when I'm a millionaire and buy it offa Brad Kern, though. Lol. But for the time being, I don't own Charmed...just my Drew. HANDS OFF!! Lol.  
  
(You all guessed it! LOL.) ...Wyatt.  
  
"I sensed that something like this may happen," he said sadly, though not grievingly. He took a look at Bianca and sighed. "I shall miss the opportunity of raising my daughter after all." He turned to Phoebe and Paige. "Where's Chris?" he asked menacingly, tone changed.  
  
They were both still kneeling by Bianca. Phoebe crumpled the letter in her hands, unable to speak. She was channeling plenty of anger from Wyatt right now, but no sadness or loss.  
  
"You can't have him," Paige growled.  
  
"Ah, but Paige, don't you see? I could take the annoying whitelighter off of your hands. I am future Wyatt, your nephew. The elders have sent me to take back a certain Christopher Perry."  
  
"That certain Chris happens to be our nephew too, Wyatt!" Phoebe cried. "We know you're evil, we know everything you've done..."  
  
"He revealed himself. This could complicate things...that fool. Do you really believe his lies? Do you actually think that I would turn evil? I'm ashamed."  
  
"You should be," said Paige. "We saw it with a spell. Everything you ever did to Chris and your family. You are a murderer."  
  
"I can't believe that you actually would accuse me of such a thing!" Wyatt yelled. "I'm your nephew!" He calmed down, and said bitterly, "You're not what I came here for. I'm wasting time." He orbed out.  
  
"We've got to warn them!" Paige exclaimed. She grabbed Phoebe by the hand and orbed them away, putting Bianca's dead body and the lingering thought of the baby on hold.  
  
"Piper, Leo—"  
  
Phoebe and Paige gasped. Their sister and brother-in-law were apparently fast asleep on the floor, Wyatt having thrown sleeping dust on them. "Sleep tight, mum and dad," he said sarcastically. He turned to Chris. There were several cuts across his arms and face, shattered glass surrounding him. He was bound and gagged, struggling to escape with no avail.  
  
"You're not going anywhere!" Phoebe cried. "Let him go!"  
  
"If you insist," said Wyatt simply. He waved his hands and Chris' eyes widened—Wyatt had orbed him out.  
  
"Where is he?!" Paige demanded.  
  
"You told me to let him go, so I did." Wyatt shrugged. "You didn't specify where exactly I should place him, did you?"  
  
"What have you done?" Phoebe whispered.  
  
"The attic," Paige answered. "The portal—"  
  
"Actually, you won't find him there. I decided that he was much too rebellious to risk taking back with me. So I bound his powers and disposed of him." Wyatt grinned at their aghast reactions, then added before orbing out, "He doesn't have much time. I wouldn't linger if I were you."  
  
"Follow him, he's lying!" Phoebe screamed.  
  
Paige orbed them to the attic just in time to see Wyatt step through the portal with Bianca's body in his arms. Other than that, he was alone. He shot them one last smile before disappearing.  
  
Phoebe tried to jump through the portal and follow him, but couldn't. "Sense for Chris," she gasped, out of breath. "Hurry!"  
  
"Alright!" Paige closed her eyes, then a minute later widened them in shock. "The bay," she croaked. "He's drowning in the Bay!"  
  
"What?"  
  
"San Francisco Bay! Wyatt must have orbed him off the bridge!"  
  
"We've got to save him!"  
  
Paige, once again, orbed Phoebe to the top of the bridge. It was night, and the wind whipped their hair and stung their cheeks and eyes. They looked down to the stormy shores and saw nothing.  
  
"We'll never find him!" Paige wailed, watching the water thrash restlessly down below them.  
  
"Yes we will, just...Try orbing him here," Phoebe suggested.  
  
"I can't see him, how can I orb him here?"  
  
"Try!"  
  
Paige closed her eyes in concentration.  
  
"Try orbing him to the manor," Phoebe said.  
  
Paige nodded, imagining Chris' body orbing out of the water and onto the manor couch in the sitting room. The image became clearer and clearer, more precise with every second...until there was no body to focus on. The image broke about five or so minutes later.  
  
"I did it," she marveled, amazed. "I think I just orbed him there."  
  
"Great, Paige!" Phoebe congratulated her sister. "Orb, now!!"  
  
"Right."  
  
They arrived at the manor to see Chris soaking wet and drenched to the bone on the couch, gasping through labored breaths and shaking profusely.  
  
"Chris, are you alright?" asked Phoebe worriedly. The two sisters rushed to his side.  
  
"Mum and dad..." he whispered shakily.  
  
"They're fine. Paige is going to get them. They're only asleep, don't worry..."  
  
Phoebe told Chris not to worry, but at the same time she was the one that feared for his well-being. He was pale, shaking, still gasping. How long had he been under? Ten minutes? Long enough to die, she thought.  
  
But Chris had been a swimmer, right? She supposed that that wouldn't help when he was bound by his feet and hands. She realized that he was bleeding at his ankles and wrists from his attempts to escape. Hopefully Piper and Leo would wake up soon...  
  
They weren't in luck. The pair of them were fast asleep, and it didn't look like they'd be conscious anytime soon.  
  
"Chris, are you alright?"  
  
He didn't respond. He had stopped gasping, but now his breathing was barely above a whisper. Phoebe bandaged his wounds to try to stop the bleeding, but it wasn't too effective.  
  
"Chris, can you hear me?"  
  
"Yeah," he managed to whisper with a half-smile to reassure her. "Peachy."  
  
Phoebe would've laughed at the sarcasm she found so alike to Piper's, but didn't find that it was the right time to be cheery.  
  
"Where's...Wyatt...?" he asked weakly.  
  
"Gone, back to the future. He must think you're dead."  
  
Chris shook his head. He knew better. Wyatt knew that Chris could survive for long periods of time underwater. There was no way that Wyatt would count on him dying.  
  
"Bianca...?"  
  
Phoebe sighed, tears welling up in her eyes. How could she tell him? He was so unstable...Looking at his paled, gaunt face, she decided not to tell him unless he asked again.  
  
"Phoebe..."  
  
"She—she's dead, Chris, I'm sorry."  
  
Chris merely nodded his head, too weak to feel anymore pain. It was a numb thought in his mind: the baby was dead. He wouldn't have a daughter.  
  
"The baby's alive...just not here. Yet."  
  
Phoebe read the note aloud to him, which she found had been clenched in her fist throughout the entire face-off with Wyatt. She smoothed it out on the table, and looked up at the ceiling. Would Chris make it? Would the baby be an orphan?  
  
Chris took a shuddering breath and closed his eyes. "Just tired," he assured Phoebe, nodding off.  
  
Phoebe wasn't sure how long he'd last.  
  
((()))  
  
MWHAHAHA!! Lol. It's officially midnight. I'll be sooo grounded if my parents find out that I'm on the comp!! NO TELLING, PEOPLE!! Lol. R&R, plz! I'll be asleep if ya need me... 


	39. Labor Laws

Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed, okay?? I'm just a low-life freakish teenager addicted to fanfic like the rest of the authors on this site!! IS THAT A CRIME?? DO I HAVE TO OWN CHARMED TO RIGHTFULLY SERVE A PURPOSE IN THIS WORLD?!?! Lol, okay...BREATHE...heh heh.

((()))

Phoebe watched Chris lying there for about an hour or so. He was still bleeding and shaking and he appeared to be asleep. She didn't want to disturb him, but his breathing seemed to get fainter and fainter...

She got up and headed to the kitchen to get something to eat. Maybe that would distract her for a little bit...

It appeared that she wasn't the only restless one in the house. Paige was burying her face in a mug of coffee, trying to hide her worry.

"Don't drink away your problems," Phoebe tried to joke.

Paige didn't laugh. "How's he doing in there?"

"I—I don't know. He's pretty out of it right now, that's for sure. He fell asleep an hour or so ago. Where are Piper and Leo?"

"I orbed them to their room," said Paige. "They're not awake yet."

"Oh."

The two sisters sat in silence for ten minutes or so.

"I don't want to lose him," said Paige after a while. "I mean, we just barely found out two days ago who he was, and now this? What if he doesn't survive? We don't really even know him yet, at least for what he is on the inside...And this is after all we've said to him since he came here, before we knew who he was..."

"He's not going to die," Phoebe asserted. "Nobody is going to die."

"Bianca did."

"Paige...Chris is a fighter. You know that. He'll be fine." Even as she said these words, though, Phoebe bit her lip uncertainly. Fortunately her little sister didn't see.

"What can we do?" asked Paige hopelessly.

"His powers are bound. Try unbinding them with a potion or something. I'll watch him."

Paige nodded, heading up the stairs. She was almost a little nervous to create another potion considering what the memory one had done to her nephew, but she decided that this one would be practically flawless. It was pretty simple. Not much could go wrong, if you knew what you were doing.

But then she paused, about halfway up to the attic. This was not at all fool-proof. Chances were that he'd have powers that were bound when he was little or something that could be unleashed...He'd never ACTUALLY shown them his rapid acceleration (note: he showed Piper, not the sisters) before. It could be bound. Along with other things.

She stopped on the steps, sitting down on the last one right outside the attic. This was much too complicated. She didn't want to make a mistake with this spell. Besides, Piper may have a better head when it came to spells like these. She'd wait until Piper was awake. It wasn't like Chris needed them NOW.

She buried her head in her hands. At this rate, he wouldn't need them...ever.

Just in case, she went back down the stairs to check on Piper and Leo. They could be awake, or close to it. She opened the door loudly, not bothering to smother the sound. Maybe the noise would wake them up.

Or not.

They slept soundly on the bed, faces expressionless. How nice it must be, not to dream, not to think, not to worry...She sighed. If they knew what was happening they wouldn't be so peaceful.

"Piper," Paige called loudly. "Piper, wake up."

No response. Paige almost thought she saw a twitch, but other than that she was silent.

"Leo! Leo, please. Please wake up."

Neither of them moved. She shook them vigorously but knew that she was getting nowhere. They would at least be asleep for another hour or so, depending on the amount of sleeping dust Wyatt had used.

After a moment of thought she decided if anything, she'd try a spell.

But not a spell to wake them up. And not a spell to unbind Chris' powers. She had to know whether or not they were bound...

So she'd visit Chris' future again.

"Sorry, Brian," she said with a shrug. She recited the spell from memory and a very hostile, menacing Brian appeared in the hallway.

"What the hell is your problem?! First the whole, 'Let's go to the future' crap and then Piper comes back for more—now you, too?!" he demanded, infuriated.

"Piper came back?"

"ARGH! YOU THREE ARE IMPOSSIBLE!"

Paige couldn't resist—she stepped on his foot. Hard. "Shut up, alright? I don't want Phoebe to know you're here. When did Piper go back? What did she see?"

"Just some childhood issues, no big." He sighed. "Alright, master, what do you wish to see?"

"What we missed when we had to come back to save Chris."

"All of it?" he whined.

"All the stuff that matters," she said pointedly.

"You can't—aren't there some kind of labor laws—?" He tried desperately to stop her. "But...but I..."

"You know, you were a lot nicer when we first met you," Paige retorted.

"Maybe that was because I wasn't expecting you to linger for half a century, okay?" He groaned. "Stupid pacifist rules...I'd KILL you all..." He grabbed her arm. "Let's go and get this over with." They orbed away.

((()))

"Here we are," Brian sighed.

("I was in the past," said Chris weakly. "I saw mom...She...she thought I was an innocent, but Aunt Phoebe said I looked familiar..."

"Slow down, Chris," said Leo. "It's okay now, you're safe. You're back. We're going to make sure that Gideon never lays another had on you again."

"Maybe..." Chris trailed off. He looked at Leo with his same sorrowful green eyes. "Maybe he was supposed to kill me."

"No, Chris, no," Leo insisted. "What would ever make you think that?"

"I'm never going to be able to stop him."

Bianca stood up. "Of course not! You can't defeat him alone!" she exclaimed. She held out her hand to him and helped him up. "We're going to defeat him, Chris, and we're going to do it together. Got it?"

"Do you really mean it?" asked Chris.

"I really mean it. From now on, nothing will stop us.")

"This is where you left off, right?"

"Yeah," said Paige. "Speed it up, alright? Just to something important."

"You three are the nosiest trio I've ever had the unfortunate—"

Paige cleared her throat loudly. "Get on with it!"

He opened his mouth, about to make a comeback...then decided not to. "Alright," he grumbled, orbing them away.

They orbed into a dark, damp cave. Three candles illuminated the two sweaty faces in the room, both sickly and pale.

"Chris is eighteen, Bianca's seventeen," Brian informed her, and added before she could ask, "They live here. In the cave, hiding from Wyatt. Right now they're sick."

"Where's Leo?"

"Um..."

"Bianca, you okay?" asked Chris. By now his features looked about the same as they did in the 23-year-old Chris she knew in their time. He was just a little younger, a little weaker. And a lot paler.

"I'm fine. You?"

He nodded, though it was clear that neither of them were fine.

"This sucks, you know?" Chris laughed bitterly, obviously trying to make light of the situation.

"Yeah, I know," she laughed, nudging him.

"How many days do you think have passed?" asked Bianca wistfully.

"Huh?"

"You know...since we hid here. It seems like forever since I've seen the sun. Or...seen Leo, for that matter."

"I'm sure he's fine," Chris consoled her. "And as for the whole sun-thing...does five hundred years seem about adequate?"

They laughed weakly.

"About." Bianca paused thoughtfully. "But it has been awhile since Leo came to train us. Like, a week or something."

"We'll call him later. Just not now. He'll be busy." He shivered, a chill running up his spine. "Later...but for now, let's just get some sleep."

Bianca nodded in agreement. They both clutched thin moth-eaten blankets around their bodies and blew out two of the candles, leaving one flaring in the darkness.

Just enough light to see Chris remove his blanket and drape it over Bianca's sleeping form before returning back to sleep himself.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Paige whispered.

((()))

A/N—Sorry it's been so long!! I was on vacation the whole time, for like, a week and a half. I will update more, I swearses. I've been busy. I'll update "A Future Remolded" and "Meteora" soon, and with any luck, "Numb" and "Aftermath" as well. See ya on the flipside!

Pink-Charmed-One.

Oh yeah—I forgot to mention (again, cough cough)—I LOVE REVIEWS AND YUMMY INVISBLE NONEXISTING COOKIES!! Lol.


	40. Waking Up

Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed, but I own DREW!! (whacks self on the head) I mean, I own...um...the sandwich that I'm eating right now. I named it Drew, just like everything else I have!

"I'm fast forwarding to the morning," Brian announced nonchalantly. He flicked his hand at the two of them.

It was just as dark as before, but it was windy in the cave. In no time the candles had blown out and there was no light source to guide them; not that either of them could move, their muscles numb from the cold.

"I hate winter," said Bianca bitterly. By now she'd already forced Chris' blanket back onto him and attempted to knock some sense into him, though it didn't quite work. "Look," she said through chattering teeth, "I can't take this anymore. We need to call Leo. We're almost out of food and if somebody doesn't help us soon, we'll freeze to death!"

"Later," Chris pleaded. "He'll be busy. I don't want to disturb him, especially if he's on to Wyatt."

"Why can't we just orb or shimmer out?" she whined.

Chris' pale face turned serious. "That would be suicidal and you know it. Wyatt would have us murdered before you could look at the sun."

"It would blind us anyway," she scoffed. They both tried to laugh but it turned into a weak cough. "Of all the places for the elders to put a magical shield on, it just happens to be the most uninhabitable cave in the world."

"I wonder if that has anything to do with Gideon trying to murder me," Chris mused. They both shivered.

"Can you find the matches? It's too dark."

"No," Chris replied, searching for them with his hands. "Can't find them. Besides, I probably couldn't light one if I tried."

Bianca slumped. "I'm calling Leo in two hours whether you like it or not. Two hours," she repeated firmly.

Chris rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "Two hours. Agreed."

Brian sighed. "Two more hours, coming up..."

"LEO!" Bianca screamed. Chris gave a jolt, half-asleep and clearly not expecting Bianca to cry out so loudly after all the quiet talking in the dark.

"Damn, you could've warned me..."

Bianca ignored him. "LEO, WHERE ARE YOU?!"

"Bianca...I don't really have a good feeling about this..."

"LEO! GET YOUR ELDER ASS—"

"Bianca!" Chris scolded.

"—DOWN HERE, NOW!"

Blue orbs filled the room and both Chris and Bianca put their heads in their hands, blinded by the sudden light source.

"Oh Leo, we thought you were—"

It wasn't Leo standing before them. It was a whitelighter, presumably, because the girl wasn't wearing the required elder robes from Up There.

"The elders assumed you dead!" she cried. "This is truly a miracle!"

"Yeah, not for long," Bianca retorted. "Who are you?"

"Where's Leo?" Chris added.

The girl, maybe in her twenties, let out a great sigh. "My name is Annabelle and I am a novice whitelighter. In truth, this is my first mission down to earth since my, um, death. It's not as nice as I remember it..."

"Go figure," Bianca interrupted. "We've been hiding down here for months. How could you assume us dead?"

"After Leo..." she trailed off. "I'm sorry, Chris, but Leo is dead."

Paige's stomach sank.

"We thought that you two had died with him."

"Oh my god..." Bianca whispered. "How...?"

"A darklighter arrow. It was Wyatt's doing—or so we think. It happened about a week and a half ago...I'm truly sorry for your loss. I will inform the elders of your survival once I arrive back Up There, and then we will do what we can to help." She orbed away and the entire cave was silent.

"Chris?" asked Bianca hesitantly.

He didn't respond. Paige winced, almost able to see the horror and shock written all over his face. A single tear rolled down his cheek and he clutched the blanket tighter, shivering. Bianca didn't say another word and they remained silent, waiting, until they eventually fell asleep.

Piper yawned, awaking to the bright light of morning. She saw Leo sound asleep beside her and smiled. She felt so...refreshed. How long had they been sleeping?

She checked the clock, watching it blink 9:00 am. She hadn't slept in this late since forever ago.

She shook Leo awake. "What happened?" she asked groggily. "How'd we...?"

Leo shook his head. "I don't..."

They exchanged glances. "Oh my god—Wyatt!" Piper screamed.

"Are you awake now?" Phoebe gasped. "Oh thank goodness—Wyatt's gone, Bianca's dead, and Chris needs desperately to be healed."

"What?"

"Leo, just orb down to the couch! Chris is dying as we speak!"

Leo orbed down, leaving a very frazzled and confused Piper standing next to her in the hallway. "Where's Paige?" she asked.

"I sent her up to the attic to work on a spell to unbind Chris' powers. I haven't heard from her since last night, come to think of it..."

They made there way upstairs and stopped dead in their tracks. Imprinted on the heavy layer of dust on the attic stairs were two pairs of footprints—one Paige's and one...

"Brian," they said together.

"She wouldn't!" Phoebe groaned.

"We never DID get to finish..." Piper said lamely. "But why is time still going on? It froze for us while we were missing."

"Probably because it's only one witch this time."

Piper bit her tongue back before she accidentally said, "But it froze for me..." She didn't want Phoebe to know about her little midnight escapade from the other day. But did it freeze for her? She was only gone for what, one or two hours? Maybe it didn't freeze and she didn't notice.

"BRIAN! BRING PAIGE BACK!" Phoebe screamed.

A ticked-off looking Brian orbed in with Paige. "Keep her," he muttered, orbing away.

Chris walked up the stairs, fully healed. "Does anyone want to explain to me what happened?"

Phoebe and Paige hugged Chris and Piper joined in, still not fully aware of what happened.

"We thought you were done for!" Paige squealed.

"Not quite," Chris laughed. "Mom, you're awake!" he noticed.

"Yup. That was the best night of sleep EVER..."

"Maybe for you," Phoebe whined. "I'm going to bed now."

"Me too," Paige groaned.

"Might as well," said Chris with a shrug. "Then somebody could PLEASE explain to me what was happening."

"Right." Phoebe yawned. "Sleep first, though."

Sorry I haven't updated too consistently. It's been, erm, hectic you might say. And then AOL got all screwy...but hey, here it is now! Yay!

Thank you so much for all of the cookies!! YOU ALL ROCK!! Lol


	41. Naming Lynn

Disclaimer: I'll let you know when Brad Kern "disappears" and I own Charmed forevermore. Toodle—oo! (cough cough.)

"What the hell just happened?" asked Leo, confused. "The last thing I can remember is being at the P3."

"You do realize that Wyatt's been at the Magic School nursery for almost three days now," said Piper.

"Damn, you're right!"

They exchanged glances, suddenly remembering the occurrences in the future concerning both of their sons. "Gideon!" Leo grabbed Piper's hand and hurriedly orbed them to the nursery.

"Hey Wyatt, you wanna play with the teddy bears? Yeah, it's a nice little teddy...Is teddy tickling you? Does he got you? Awwww, he's got you!!"

Wyatt giggled at the daycare teacher at Magic School, who was now cooing at him with a little teddy bear. His grin widened and he squealed excitedly at the sight of his parents coming to pick him up.

"Hey Wyatt, look! It's Mommy!" Piper called out to him. "Come here, sweetie..."

Wyatt orbed away from the nanny and into Piper's outstretched arms. She hugged the little boy tightly and smiled up at Leo.

"Sorry it's been awhile," said Piper apologetically. "But don't worry, we've got everything under control now."

"No problem. Wyatt and I had so much fun!" she said in a baby-voice, smiling at Wyatt. "Buh-bye, Wyatt! Buh-bye!! Come back soon!"

Wyatt giggled and waved to the nanny. Leo orbed away mid-wave.

"I'll find a way to protect Wyatt from Gideon. I'll find proof. I mean, most elders can see the future...it's all the evidence we need to revoke him. In the meantime, he's going nowhere near the Magic School," he said, indicating Wyatt.

"You hungry?" asked Piper.

Wyatt nodded, pointing over at the kitchen. He looked around what he could see of the manor as if to ask "Where is everybody?"

"Can you believe it, Wyatt? Everybody's gone to bed!" Piper made a dramatic gasp and Wyatt giggled. "They're all taking naps just like you! Doesn't that sound fun?" She bounced him on her hip, searching in the fridge for something to eat. Suddenly she turned to Leo, dead serious. "We need to talk to Chris about this when he wakes up."

"What do you need to say to me?" asked a groggy voice, coming down the stairs.

"You're awake," said Leo, surprised.

"Hey, Wyatt's back!" Chris exclaimed, having no idea that Wyatt was to be turned by the man none other than Gideon.

"Yeah, about that..." Piper began.

"What? Did something happen?" asked Chris.

"No, not yet. But I need you to think back about eight years, okay? And because of that spell, I guess it wouldn't be too hard..." Piper took in a deep breath. "Do you remember when Gideon tried to kill you?"

Chris nodded, looking at Piper curiously. Wyatt looked in between Leo and Chris and Piper, also looking a little confused at what they were saying.

"Gideon wanted to kill you because he thought you'd be more powerful than Wyatt. So that would mean..."

Chris' eyes widened in realization. "He'd probably tried to kill Wyatt at one point, too!"

"Right," Leo confirmed. "And that's why we are NEVER enrolling our kids in Magic School."

"Wait—you have to take us to Magic School," Chris objected. "We can get rid of Gideon by that time anyways, but when I'm born, Wyatt goes to Magic School because it's a way for him to get through the whole 'terrible-twos' thing, you know? If he doesn't go to Magic School, it could alter him—and my two-year-old self, along with Prue and Mel and Colin—"

"Well, maybe some things will have to change," said Piper.

"Piper..." Leo tried to reason. "Chris has a point. Magic School is important—"

"Not if they are screwed up elders conspiring to murder my sons!" Piper shot back.

"It's only one elder, not a conspiracy, and we're gonna get rid of him."

"Right." Chris sighed. "And, uh, it looks like Wyatt isn't gonna be the only baby attending Magic School..."

"What do you mean?"

"My kid," he said sheepishly.

"Isn't Bianca dead?" Leo asked gently.

"Yeah, she is. For good this time. But the baby isn't. It's spirit's still wandering and it will reappear on it's due date—the middle of January."

"What?" Piper asked. "Is that possible?"

He nodded. "Bianca left a note here. She thought I was dead, and she was hoping you and the sisters would take the baby."

"Wait—why'd she think you were dead? We still have no idea what happened," said Piper, confused. By now she'd poured some goldfish (Wyatt's obsession, lol) for Wyatt and set him in his high chair.

"Wyatt put you two to sleep and bound me, stripped me of my powers and sent me catapulting of the Golden Gate Bridge. Hell of a lot of fun, that was. Meanwhile, the girls had orbed to the manor in time to find Bianca dead and Wyatt going through the portal—alone. So they found the note, found me, and then...hey, wait a minute! I still don't have my powers!"

"Yeah, I'll go deal with that. You and Leo watch Wyatt. Don't let anything happen...especially anything that starts with a "G" and plots murders for innocent babies..."

Leo rolled his eyes. Not that he wasn't concerned himself, it was just that Piper could be a little...well...paranoid.

"I'll make lunch," Chris offered. "Want a sandwich?"

"Sure. Thanks."

Chris made them both peanut butter an jelly sandwiches and sat down next to Leo.

"You nervous?" asked Leo after a while.

"Nervous? Why?" Chris answered quickly.

"That baby of yours. And that you're this close from saving the entire future," said Leo, showing the 'this close' by the little sliver of air between his fingers.

"Yeah, a little. It's a girl. That much I know."

"Well, what are you gonna name her?"

"I haven't thought about that, actually. Can't name her Mel or Prue, can I?" he said with a grin. "You know, Bianca's mom's name was Lynn. That might be..."

"Yeah, that's a nice name," Leo agreed.

"Lynn Cassandra Halliwell," Chris said, liking the sound of it. "You know, Cassandra like Melinda Warren's daughter."

"Nice idea. I'm gonna be a grandfather finally after almost a hundred years! Took you long enough," he joked.

"Wow, you're older than I imagined," Chris said right back. He looked at the window. "Can't wait to meet you, Lynn."

Erm...I've updated "Aftermath" and "Numb" along with this, so don't hurt me. I'm updating "A Future Remolded" next. I'm a bit busy...lol. TOO MANY FICS!!


	42. THE END

Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed....just this excuse for a brain inside my thick skull...hehe.

Okay, don't hurt me for this. Ooo, I know you're all gonna hurt me for this. Don't. Hurt. Me. Okay? Okay. Good.

One more time—DO YOU PROMISE NOT TO HURT ME? I hope that was a yes. Now I'm going to do something that will make me regret existing...

EPILOGUE:

One year later...

--Piper's POV--

Things have settled down quite a bit. Gideon's dead, thankfully, and I have two little precious gifts now, both sleeping contently in the nursery as I sit here in the rocking chair. The future has been saved.

Of course, there were some complications along the way. Gideon decided to strike right when Lynn appeared. While trying to eliminate Wyatt, he saw the baby girl as a threat. You know, part witch, whitelighter, and assassin. Thrice-blessed, you could say. It was an issue.

So he attacked the manor. Chris tried to defend Wyatt and ended up getting stabbed, conscious long enough to see that both Lynn and Wyatt had been kidnapped. He tried to call for Leo but all of the elders were on suspension after Gideon orbed down to earth, and Leo couldn't hear the calls. Paige eventually found him and orbed up to Magic School, where they found an appropriate healer for the stab wound.

Chris was the only one who'd seen it happen. He orbed down to where he sensed Gideon in a heartbeat—only to find Lynn, dead on the floor. He broke down sobbing. He couldn't take it. And then he realized...it was an illusion.

When he snapped out of it and overcame his fear, he saw Gideon and Barbus, holding a knife to Wyatt's shield that was protecting the two babies. Without a sound, Chris muttered a vanquishing spell for Barbus and used telekinesis to unarm Gideon and use his own weapon against him—

Chris killed Gideon.

He stayed with Lynn here long enough to tell us the tale, then promptly left the manor along with Bianca, returning to the true future he deserved.

I smile, watching my two boys. You wouldn't believe it was true, but the pair of them really do get along now. When Chris was first born, it was chaotic. But Chris never stuck around to see his baby self; he was gone long before then.

I wish that he could've stayed to tell me more. I wish he could warn us about all of the mishaps in his future so we could fix it. I wish...well, I wish that I could be there for him. But I have to remind myself that that's another Piper's job in another time, so he'll be okay.

Once I stop rocking and look up, I realize that three-month-old Chris is staring at me, a wide grin on his face. I smile back. That's the funny thing about him—he never cries when he wakes up. He's a very happy baby. I can't wait to watch them grow—both of them.

For now I can only wonder what the future holds. But this time, I don't have to hope for a good one. I already know that any future we come across will be fine.

Chris' POV

One year later...

It's been ten months since I completed my mission, and the future has finally been set right. Bianca, Wyatt, and the rest of the Halliwell family are the only people that can remember the events that occurred in the other timeline. I came here with a new set of memories—and boy, was it confusing at first.

I still have Bianca and Lynn. We live across the street from the manor, since it was a bit too crowded there anyway. It's so cool seeing little Prue and Mel and Colin and Bindle and Bailey all grown up. It's just like I thought it would be.

Bindle, now the baby of her generation, is thirteen years old and currently the girl all the guys drool over. Bailey's a skateboarder relaxed type and reminds me a lot of myself at his age—not that interested in girls when girls are interested in him. He makes me laugh and we're pretty good buddies, even though he's just about to turn fifteen himself.

Colin and Mel are both twenty years old now, and have completely opposite dreams. Mel is engaged to a mortal man, Dave, who knows about magic and accepts her. She's training to be an extreme sports instructor at a camp for kids every summer and winter. Colin's in Harvard Law School, trying to become a lawyer, where he's dating a couple of women. Who'd have guessed?

Prue is twenty one years old now and the proud author of two fantasy books about witches. She's a photographer for a teen magazine (which also has some perks for Bindle) and has photographed and interviewed many popular celebrities. She's single now, but something tells me that she and Brian...umm...I'll shut up. It's her business—and Bindle's when she uses her super-sharp hearing to listen in on their conversations. Heh.

And Wyatt, twenty five years, is married to a mortal woman, Annie, and currently has two children. The first is Leo (gee, wonder where that came from), a two-year-old with Annie's red hair and Wyatt's blue eyes. The second, Alex (a boy), will turn one in a month and is very close in age to Lynn.

The manor's a little too cramped now, considering that Wyatt, Annie, their two kids, Bindle, Bailey, adult Prue, Mark, younger Prue, Paige, Jake—

Oh yeah, Jake. That was a Magic School teacher that Wyatt killed as a toddler in the past timeline. In this timeline he lived so Paige met him and they married. But Mel and Colin were still exactly the same. I think that in the other timeline, Jake and Paige met and...(hem) before she and Richard were married in the first place. Erm, yeah, I know.

As I was saying—Wyatt, Annie, their two kids, Bindle, Bailey, adult Prue, Mark, younger Prue, Paige, Jake, Piper, Leo, Phoebe, and Jason (Mel lives with Dave, Colin lives in a college dorm). With fifteen people living at the manor, we decided that it would be best if Bianca and I moved across the street.

Besides, we're expecting. Matthew Perry, a boy, titled after recycled middle names. We have got to get some more names in the Halliwell line!

Well, he won't be here for another six months or so. But I'm sure that Lynn will enjoy having a little brother. Maybe half as much as Wyatt enjoyed me...

I laugh, watching little Lynn toddle over to me, where I'm sitting on the couch and helping Bianca compile photos of her for the baby book. This is definitely just the kind of future I wanted to create.

THE END!

Okay, no murdering me. It had to be done. All strange things have to end sometime, right? Besides, it's better than never finishing and leaving you all with cliffies...

I AM NOT A BAD PERSON!!

Does this mean no more cookies?? Don't try to bribe me, though. I can't be bribed by...(drools)...yummy, delicious, juicy, chocolate—

AAAHHHHH!!

Yours Sincerely,

Pink-Charmed-One


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